Women Doctors Earn 70% of Male Peers' Pay

Female doctors earn only about 70 percent of what their male counterparts are paid, a survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Thursday shows.

Doctors earned W230.69 million on average in 2020, the highest among all medical professionals (US$1=W1,300). But that was down 2.3 percent from 2019, probably because fewer people went to hospital due to the coronavirus pandemic. Over the past decade, doctors' pay increased 5.2 percent on annual average. 

The highest-paid doctors were thoracic surgeons with W487.99 million a year while pediatricians were the lowest paid with W108.75 million. Female doctors earned W172.86 million on average, just 69.6 percent of their male counterparts' W248.25 million. 

Shin Young-seok at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs said, "The gender pay gap may have been caused by working hours that were curtailed by pregnancy, childbirth and childbearing." 

Dentists earned W194.89 million per year, herb medicine doctors W108.59 million, pharmacists W84.16 million, and herb pharmacists W49.22 million. 

Nurses earned W47.44 million, just one-fifth of what doctors are paid. Female nurses earned more than their male counterparts at W47.49 million compared to W46.53 million. Nursing assistants were the lowest paid medical professionals with W20.83 million.

Meanwhile, Seoul had the highest number of doctors at 305.6 per 100,000 population, and North Gyeongsang Province the lowest at 126.5.