Jack Jakucyk: Making sense of ‘numbers’

Your “Notable numbers” from May 21 showed that male doctors earn a median salary of $209,596 versus a median of $135,169 for female physicians. I know what you’re suggesting here, but this is simply evidence of lying with statistics rather than proving the tired canard of wage discrimination against women.

Much of the salary difference can be explained by their specialties. More men tend to be cardiologists and orthopedic surgeons while women are disproportionately pediatricians and general practitioners. Guess which ones make more money?

Also, while the number of female doctors has increased over time, the most senior physicians out there are typically men, and they tend to more highly compensated.

The most accurate, apples-to-apples comparison would be, say, how much do 50-year-old male cardiologists make versus 50-year-old female cardiologists?

My guess is that the medical profession is like most occupations where numerous studies show that when you adjust for age, education and experience, the difference in compensation between males and females is generally not statistically significant.

This story was originally published June 3, 2016 at 5:19 PM with the headline "Jack Jakucyk: Making sense of ‘numbers’."