Male Md. doctors paid 50% more than female doctors

Male doctors in Maryland are paid about 50 percent more on average than their female counterparts, according to a new survey commissioned by the state’s largest professional association for physicians. The survey by Merritt Hawkins, a national search and consulting firm for doctors, found that male physicians in Maryland were paid $335,000 on average, while the state’s female physicians took home an average of $224,000. The pay gap held true regardless of doctors’ specialties, the survey showed. “We were somewhat aware that the gender disparity issue existed, but the extent of it shocked us when it came out,” said Gene Ransom, CEO of MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society. MedChi commissioned the study in response to other reports that found physician pay was lower in Maryland than in other states, Ransom said. His group hoped the results of the study would provide members with a bargaining tool they could use in pay negotiations. In addition to the pay divide between men and women, the Merritt Hawkins study found that Maryland physicians earned pay that was lower than the national average. Physicians in 14 of the 15 specialties tracked in the study earned less than the average starting salary for their discipline. Family medicine physicians in Maryland, for instance, made an average of $214,000 in 2016, while the average starting salary for family medicine practitioners nationwide was $231,000. And for orthopedic surgeons, the average national salary was $579,000, but orthopedic surgeons in Maryland made an average of $412,000 in 2016. Chicoteague Pony Swim has prompted a clash between animal rights group PETA and the fire company that organizes the popular annual event. A spokeswoman for the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Co. said the pony’s death was accidental, and pushed back against PETA’s criticism of the event. Butterfly Kisses was euthanized after slipping, falling and breaking her neck in a pen on carnival grounds, a day after the pony took part in the fire company’s 93rd annual swim, according to Denise P. Bowden, the spokeswoman for the fire company that manages the wild pony herd. The mare had made the swim without any injury, as she had done many times before, Bowden said. Butterfly Kisses lived on Assateague Island off the coast of the Delmarva Peninsula, where she waiting to return at the time of the accident. PETA, formally People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, called on the fire company to halt the swims after the mare’s death, arguing that the swim and subsequent pony auction are stressful and frightening for the animals. Bowden said PETA’s claims are baseless. “While these ponies mean a great deal to the Fire Company, the town and the county financially, we are also human beings who see these gorgeous animals as the beautiful creatures they are and we handle them with the care and respect they deserve,” Bowden wrote Tuesday on the company’s Facebook page. “If we did not do this event, these animals would end up over populating, eat themselves out of house and home, suffer diseases and injuries without any help at all. These are the facts about how we do what we do.” The swim raises money for the fire company, and helps control the wild pony population on Assateague Island, according to organizers. A group of wranglers known as Saltwater Cowboys herd the ponies across the channel between Assateague and Chincoteague island at a time when there is no current. The ponies end their swim in a marshland on Chincoteague, just south of the Maryland-Virginia border. Two volunteer cleanups are scheduled at Sandy Point State Park to clear large amounts of debris that washed up onto the beach and closed it to swimmers after last week’s rains, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources said Wednesday. The cleanups are scheduled for today and Saturday at 9 a.m., although volunteers may arrive whenever is convenient for them, the department said on Twitter. Those planning to volunteer are asked to wear solid shoes, bring bug spray and fill out an online application beforehand. Gloves will be distributed to volunteers, and because all manner of unknown trash has washed up, officials are not allowing children younger than 7 years old to participate. The debris washed up this week, largely from the Susquehanna River, where officials raised crest gates at the Conowingo Dam to keep it from being overwhelmed with rainwater — releasing tons of trash, logs, sediment and other detritus into the Chesapeake Bay.