On the other hand, those that prepare our contracts often have business degrees. They negotiate contracts for a living, and their incentives and interests are rarely aligned with yours. It’s not a fair fight.
When I graduated from my residency in OBGYN in 2017, I went from making $49,000 per year to $250,000. If my math is correct, that’s around a 500% raise?! I was thrilled, to say the least.
Understanding how differences in income can impact our lifelong wealth and ability to achieve FIRE is critical. Especially in my field of OBGYN, we’re a field heavily dominated by female physicians.
According to Doximity’s 2021 Physician Compensation Report, the physician gender pay gap has been growing over the past 5 years. In 2021, the gender pay gap was 28.2%, which represents a $122,000 pay difference in that single year!
I’m not talking about your value as a human; we know there is no price tag on that, but as a physician, there are metrics and expectations that have a monetary value, and we should be compensated appropriately to reflect that.