WASHINGTON: If you think gender disparity exists only at the low-level income group, think twice. Women who serve as directors of internal medicine residency programmes are paid less than their male counterparts, says a new study.

In fact, wage disparities extend to high-wage, high-prestige positions as well.

"Despite the increased percentage of women faculty in US academic medicine, disparities in achievement still exist," said lead author Lisa L. Willett from the department of medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, U.S.

Even after controlling for academic rank, career path in general internal medicine, and age, the differences remained.

These differences have persisted since at least 2008, found the study.

"The disparity exists regardless of region, programme type, academic rank, general internal medicine specialty, age, or years of experience. In addition, we found that the gap in salary has not narrowed over the past five years," Willet said.

Salary data was divided into $25,000 increments and the mode, or most likely, salary was $200,000 to $225,000 for men and $175,000 to $200,000 for women.

For the study, the team analysed responses from 241 programme directors and programme administrators from the annual Association of Programme Directors in Internal Medicine (APDIM) survey in August 2012.

Historical trends were also assessed from similar data from the 2008-2011 surveys.

"Reporting this information is an important step in addressing the disparity in an effort to improve it. Sponsorship of women without awareness of, and subsequent advocacy for, salary equity is unlikely to correct these disparities," the authors said.

The study appeared in The American Journal of Medicine.

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