Understanding & Addressing Faculty Salary Equity
Achieving salary equity in academic medicine is the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. There are tangible institutional benefits to addressing equity issues — including salary equity — and costs to ignoring them.
Beyond a moral imperative, failing to create equitable environments, of which salary-equity efforts are a part, can hamper institutional success through retention and recruitment costs, as well as through losses in research and clinical productivity.
Creating a plan to achieve salary equity shows a commitment to and can assist institutions in keeping the best and brightest in the academic medicine and science. It should be part of an ongoing strategy to foster a supportive culture for faculty.
The AAMC has developed a set of tools and resources to help your institution get started. There’s no easy or quick solution to address salary equity, but the below information can help you begin your understanding and strategy.
Read the 2022 Report
This publication, Exploring Salary Equity Among Medical School Leadership, presents for the first time aggregate data from the AAMC’s annual Dean’s Office Staff Compensation Survey and Dean’s Compensation Survey and examines salary equity among medical school deans and dean’s office leadership positions. This report builds off the AAMC’s first two faculty-focused reports addressing salary equity in academic medicine. In addition to this report, new data tables have been published on compensation for dean’s office staff leadership and compensation of medical school deans.
Read the 2021 Report
Understanding and addressing salary equity in academic medicine is critical to attracting and retaining talented faculty in U.S. medical schools and fulfilling institutional missions. This publication, Exploring Faculty Salary Equity at U.S. Medical Schools by Gender and Race/Ethnicity, explores salary equity as one of many institutional efforts that make up an overall strategy to promote an equitable culture and climate. Watch the webinar that explores the report.
Read the 2019 Report
Our report, Promising Practices for Understanding and Addressing Salary Equity at US Medical Schools, is a good starting point for creating a strategy for salary equity.
It includes data on faculty compensation, promotion trends, and perceptions of the work environment, as well as promising practices from 11 medical schools that all institutions can use to begin or refine their own local salary equity efforts.
Explore the Data
The Faculty Salary Equity Tool (FSET) allows institutions to examine trends in total compensation by gender, rank, degree, department/specialty, and institutional ownership type (e.g. private schools, public schools) across the past five fiscal years.
Graphic displays include mean and median comparisons of total compensation by gender in dollar amounts and cents on the dollar comparisons. The tool also includes a flat file of aggregated national data for use in local institutional studies.
Note: Only available to deans and Principal Business Officers (PBOs) with complimentary access to the Faculty Salary Survey report data. The AAMC encourages deans and PBOs to share this tool with others on campus.
Develop a Strategy
Need help getting started? This toolkit provides a wealth of resources from national data tables to sample school of medicine reports and salary dashboards that can help you begin addressing salary equity at your own institution.
Related Resources
Closing the gender pay gap in medicine
Leaders in academic medicine are working to address salary inequities. Learn how the report highlights the progress made to date — and the challenges yet to come. Read More on AAMCNews
Understanding and Addressing Faculty Salary Equity Webinar
This webinar will present data from the recent faculty salary analysis, explore organizational components of faculty salary equity studies and compensation, and take an in-depth look at effective practices from institutions highlighted in the publication for their efforts to address salary equity.
Please note: Some of the resources listed below are from organizations that require registration, membership, or purchase. We encourage you to collaborate with other leaders at your institution in exploring these resources, particularly those in Finance, Administration, and HR, who may already have institutional memberships to these organizations.
Toolkit
Gender and Race/Ethnicity
Individuals can purchase a print or digital copy of the AAMC Faculty Salary Report through the AAMC Store. Please contact fss@aamc.org with questions about these tables or the Faculty Salary Report.
As the individuals responsible for providing the survey data, deans, Principal Business Officers, and their designees, have complimentary access to the report and custom report generators containing confidential-school level survey data. Report users can log in to the report here.
Graphics Gallery
Use these charts and infographics from Promising Practices in presentations about salary equity to facilitate understanding of national trends.
- Figure 1: Institutional Gender Equity Framework (PDF)
- Figure 2: USC’s Center for Urban Education (2018) Equity-Mindedness Framework (PDF)
- Figure 3: Full-time faculty by department, rank, and gender at all U.S. medical schools (PDF)
- Figure 4: Seven-year promotions for first-time assistant and associate professors (PDF)
- Figure 5: Workplace engagement and culture (PDF)
- Figure 6: Allocation and perceptions of effort: full-time basic-science faculty (PDF)
- Figure 7: Allocation and perceptions of effort: full-time clinical faculty (PDF)
- Figure 8: Sample representation for FY 2017 faculty salary survey data analysis (PDF)
- Figure 9: 2017 distribution of men’s and women’s median compensation (PDF)
- Figure 10: FY 2017 median compensation by gender and rank (PDF)
- Figure 11: FY 2017 median compensation by gender, rank, and department type (PDF)
- Figure 12: Compensation in cents on the dollar for women by department type and degree (PDF)
- Figure 13: Compensation in cents on the dollar for women by department and specialty (PDF)
- Figure 14: All faculty compensation and cents on the dollar for women by department and specialty (PDF)
- Figure 15: Compensation in cents on the dollar for women by medicine specialties (PDF)
- Figure 16: Compensation in cents on the dollar for women by pediatric specialties (PDF)
- Figure 17: Compensation in cents on the dollar for women by surgical specialties (PDF)
- Figure 18 & 19: Compensation by gender, rank, departments – neurosciences and physiology (PDF)
- Figure 20 & 21: Compensation by gender, rank, departments – surgery and radiology (PDF)
- Figure 22 & 23: Compensation by gender, rank, departments – pediatrics and OBGYN (PDF)
- Figure 24 & Table 2: Median and total compensation by gender, rank, and degree (PDF)
- Figure 25: Compensation in cents on the dollar for women across medical schools (PDF)
- Figure 26: Compensation in cents on the dollar by faculty size across medical schools (PDF)
- Figure 27: Yearly snapshot of compensation in cents on the dollar by department type from 2013-17 (PDF)
- Figure 28 & 29: Yearly snapshot of compensation by gender, rank – instructor & assistant (PDF)
- Figures 30 & 31: Yearly snapshot of compensation by gender, rank – associate & professor (PDF)
- Figure 32 & 33: Yearly snapshot of compensation by gender, rank – chief & chair (PDF)
Download all the graphics in one PDF.
School of Medicine Studies and Reports
Examine reports from other schools of medicine to understand study methodologies, variables used, study approach, and recommendations.
- UCSF Faculty Salary Equity Review Full Report (2018)
- Medical College of Wisconsin Compensation & Productivity Benchmarking Methodology (PDF) (2018)
- UCLA Senate Faculty Salary Equity Study for the Schools of Medicine & Dentistry (2017)
- Yale Annual Regression Model (PDF) (2018)
- UCI Faculty Salary Equity Study School of Medicine (2017)
- University of Colorado Denver “Supporting Gender Equity: Faculty Focus Group Results (PDF) (2017)
- East Carolina University Division of Health Sciences Analysis of Compensation Equity by Gender and Race (2016)
- Report on Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Faculty Salary Analysis (2014)
- UC Davis Faculty Salary Equity Analysis (2014)
Salary Data Dashboards
Review these dashboards to consider new ways of displaying data for individual faculty members, leaders to track their faculty information, or better monitor from an institutional perspective.
Compensation Philosophies and Policies
Use these sample philosophies and policies to consider developing your own statements or policies to better inform faculty about your institutions goals regarding compensation.
- Yale School of Medicine Compensation Philosophy and Principles (PDF)
- MCW Compensation Philosophy (PDF) and Overview (PDF) (2014)
- MCW Compensation Corporate Policies and Procedures (PDF) (2018)
- ACP Position Statement on Compensation Equity and Transparency in the Field of Medicine (2017)
- PayScale Developing a Compensation Strategy and PayScale Sample Compensation Philosophy Template (2018)
Higher Education and Industry Reports
Compare methods used both in higher education and other industries to gain additional perspectives and context for salary equity studies to inform your overall strategy.
- National Women’s Law Center The Wage Gap: The Who, How, Why, and What to Do Fact Sheet (2018)
- Leveling the Paying Field: Best Practices for Gender Pay Equity in the Workplace (2018)
- University of Buffalo Internal 2016-2017 Faculty Salary Equity Study (2018)
- Georgetown University Women Can’t Win (2018)
- CUPA-HR The Gender Pay Gap and the Representation of Women in Higher Education Administrative Positions: The Century So Far (2017)
- CUPA-HR Women’s Equity in Higher Education Administration Infographic (2017)
- PayScale The State of the Gender Pay Gap in 2018 – (free download with free registration)
- Glassdoor How to Analyze Your Gender Pay Gap: An Employer’s Guide (2017)
- University of Virginia Faculty Salary Study Task Force Report (2014)
- Updated Analyses of Gender Equity in Salaries of Faculty at the University of Minnesota (2013)
- Promoting Gender Equity for Women Employees – EAB (Education Advisory Board) Report (2012)
Physician Reports
Various physician organizations produce regular reports examining the current state of physician compensation by specialty. These studies cover physicians broadly and can be used as additional context in examining the salaries of clinical MD faculty.
- 2018 Medscape Physician Compensation Report and Overview of Female Physician Compensation (free, requires site account registration)
- Doximity Physician Compensation Report (2018)
- Achieving Gender Equity in Physician Compensation and Career Advancement: A Position Paper of the American College of Physicians (2018)
- CHWS Gender Pay Gaps Widen for Newly Trained Physicians (2018)
- Athena Health Gender Disparities Among Physicians – Infographic Series (2018)
- MGMA Press Release on 2017 Physician Compensation and Production Survey (full report available for purchase)
- ACP Research on Compensation Equity and Transparency in the Field of Medicine (2017)
Online Tools
Explore these online tools to view data trends and formulate your own strategy around salary equity including communications, implementation ideas, and pledges of support.
- MGMA Compensation Calculator (membership required)
- MGMA DataDive Provider – Compensation Data (purchase required)
- Chronicle of Higher Education Data Tool – faculty, staff, and adjunct salary data across colleges
- Inside Higher Ed Compensation Sorter By State and Rank
- Higher Education Wage Gap Graphic – Visualizing the Wage Gender Gap at America’s Top Colleges
- IWPR Pay Equity and Discrimination Web Resource
- SHRM Managing Pay Equity Online Toolkit (membership required)
- US Business Equal Pay Pledge
- National Committee on Pay Equity Online Resource
- ADA Webinar – The Gender Pay Gap in Medicine, Law and Dentistry
- PayScale Webinar: How to Conduct a Pay Equity Analysis
Literature Review
Review existing research that examines faculty salaries across academic medicine to support design of local efforts to study salary equity, particularly as a part of developing a larger strategy to address gender equity.
Faculty Salary Survey
The FSS publication and online tables are available for purchase which include 33 tables that display total compensation in a variety of ways, such as by degree, rank, department/specialty, region, and school ownership. Sign in required.
Contact: fss@aamc.org
Faculty Roster
This database generates tables on the annual distribution of U.S. medical school faculty by department, school, rank, ethnicity, degree, gender, primary specialty, and tenure status.
Contact: FAMOUShelp@aamc.org
GWIMS Salary Equity Toolkit
Explore the GWIMS Toolkit chapter on salary equity. Contents of the toolkit are focused on the individual faculty member and includes salary elements, determining your market value, negotiating for salary, and an introduction to advancing equity at your local institution.