Nurses speak out about gender pay gap
Posted over 8 years ago by Nicholas M Perrino
"The study reflects data from nearly 88,000 RNs from the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses from 1988 to 2008, as well as 205,825 RNs from the 2001-2013 American Community Surveys. Men represented 7% of both data sets. Both samples showed male RNs' salaries were higher than female RNs' salaries every year.
Gender pay gaps also varied by position, with nurse anesthetists standing out with a gender pay gap of $17,290.
The fact that nurse anesthesia is the highest paid nursing specialty and attracts more men than any other area in nursing offers no explanation as to why there is such a significant pay gap between male and female CRNAs, according to Sharon Pearce, CRNA, MSN, president, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists.
'From a practice standpoint, all nurse anesthetists — male and female alike — receive the same education and training, and they all provide the same safe, high-quality patient care for every type of procedure requiring anesthesia,' Pearce said. 'The AANA and the profession, as a whole, would like to see this gap eliminated, because there's no acceptable reason for there to be such imbalance in the pay scales.'
The gender pay gap, while it's making headlines in nursing, is relatively narrow compared with other professions. For example, women who are financial advisers make only 61% of what their male colleagues make, according to Ariane Hegewisch, a study director at the Institute for Women's Policy Research, Washington, D.C."