Media Release 07 December,2025
Ochre Health report reveals gender pay gap among Australian GPs
-Female GPs earn up to 10% less per hour, driven by longer consultation times and associated Medicare rebates.
Ochre Health, a leading provider of medical centre services to more than 500 general practitioners across metropolitan, regional and remote Australia, has published a key report highlighting gender-based income disparities in the GP workforce.
Key findings:
- Female GPs earn 6.5% less per consulting hour than male GPs.
- The primary driver of this gap is consultation length: male GPs conduct shorter consultations, enabling them to see 0.25 more patients per hour.
- Due to Medicare’s rebate structure which favours shorter consultations, a full-time male GP generates approximately $38,200 more in annual billings for the same consulting hours.
- When factoring in longer working hours, male GPs earn over $100,000 more annually.
- The gap is wider in regional areas, where female GPs earn 10% less per hour.
Elizabeth Crouch AM, Chair of Ochre Health, commented: “This is an important issue for female GPs, many of whom are treating patient with complex conditions requiring longer consultations. Through providing meaningful data in this report, we hope to better inform discussion on income inequality for all female GPs.”
Michele Smith OAM, Ochre Health’s immediate past CEO and Director, added: “The gap is greater for rural female GPs compared to their urban peers. Encouragingly, younger GPs show a significantly smaller gap, suggesting some improvement over time.”
The report, Insights into Gender Pay Gap Amongst General Practitioners in Australia, is available at: https://ochrehealth.com.
Overview of Ochre Health’s findings.
Ochre Health is a medical centre service provider supporting over 500 General Practitioners (GPs) across metropolitan, rural, and remote Australian communities. The organisation’s GP cohort is evenly split between male and female practitioners, allowing for an insightful analysis of gender-based income differences within the sector.
Key insights on gender income gap.
The report from Ochre Health reveals a 6.5 per cent reduction in female earnings per hour compared to those of male GPs. This disparity is primarily attributed to differences in consultation durations, with male GPs seeing 0.25 more patients per consulting hour than their female counterparts.
Role of Medicare rebates. Australia’s Medicare rebate system has an inherent bias that favours doctors conducting shorter consultations, indirectly contributing to the gender pay gap. As a result, male GPs, who tend to have shorter consultations, are able to generate higher billings over equivalent consulting hours.
Income gap figures.
For GPs working full time, male practitioners generate over $38,200 more in billings each year than their female colleagues, despite working the same number of consulting hours. When factoring in the longer annual hours typically worked by male GPs, this difference grows to over $100,000 in additional annual billings.
Regional disparities.
The pay gap is even more pronounced in regional areas, where female GPs earn 10 per cent less per consulting hour compared to males. This indicates that location further influences income inequality within the field.
Industry perspectives.
Elizabeth Crouch AM, Chair of Ochre Health, emphasised the importance of this issue, “particularly for female GPs, and expressed hope that the report would contribute valuable data to ongoing discussions about GP income inequality.”
Michele Smith OAM, Ochre Health’s immediate past CEO and Director, highlighted that “the income gap is wider for rural female GPs compared to their urban peers. However, she noted a positive trend: younger GPs experience a significantly smaller income gap, suggesting the potential for improvement over time.”
Future research and recommendations.
While the Ochre Health report provides strong evidence, the authors acknowledge that it may not fully represent the entire GP industry. They call for additional research to validate the findings and to explore potential Medicare reforms that could address this disparity.
Further Information.
The full report, titled Insights into Gender Paygap amongst General Practitioners in Australia, is available on Ochre Health’s website at https://ochrehealth.com.au/
