Family physician pay inequality: a qualitative study exploring how physician responses to perceived patient expectations may explain gender, race, and immigration status pay differences

BACKGROUND: Pay inequality related to social identity has been observed among physicians, even after accounting for hours worked and specialty. Physician identity factors, such as gender and race, may contribute to practice behaviours in ways that affect income. In this study, we sought to explore how Ontario family physicians understand the relation between their identities and practice patterns and to form a theory of how identities may …