Analysis of gender pay gaps among public sector doctors in Great Britain

Diniz, Julia 2025. Analysis of gender pay gaps among public sector doctors in Great Britain. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Gender pay gaps remain pervasive across labour markets worldwide, and empirical evidence suggests that looking within individual and uniform occupations is key to sustainable progress in narrowing broader gaps. This thesis investigates the trends, context and underlying drivers of gender pay gaps among public sector doctors in Great Britain– a key and high-skilled occupation that operates under standardised pay structures and stringent equality legislation that would, in principle, anticipate narrower gaps. Drawing on the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) from 2003–2019, the thesis presents findings from three interlinked empirical studies. First, wage differential decompositions reveal that the gender pay gap among public sector doctors widened from 2003 to 2009, then narrowed from 2009 to 2019. These trends were largely driven by changing gender gaps in labour market experience, partly influenced by the shifting composition of the occupation. Second, placing these trends in a broader landscape reveals that overall progress in narrowing the gap in public sector medicine lagged that of the wider labour market and other high-skilled occupations, such as lawyers and accountants. This resulted from unmeasured factors specific to part-time doctors offsetting substantial progress in gender convergences in characteristics in the occupation. Lastly, exploiting the longitudinal dimension of the ASHE in a fixed effects framework un covers gendered pay trajectories over individual careers. Women in public sector medicine experience slower cumulative wage growth than their male peers– a gap particularly associated with part-time work and one that mirrors those observed in other high-skilled occupations. Together, these findings highlight that, even with highly regulated environments and pay structures, large and persistent gender pay gaps can arise and persist within occupations where experience-based progression and rigid structures intersect with flexible but gendered work pat terns. The thesis underscores ongoing policy concerns over structural features of pay and pro gression which disproportionately and adversely affect women, offering critical insights to better understanding the sources of gender pay gaps among public sector doctors in Great Britain.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Schools > Business (Including Economics)
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	8 May 2026
Last Modified:	08 May 2026 15:33
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/186881

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