Although Women Dominate the Nursing Profession, Do Men Make More Money?

[allnurses]

Male nurses make $5000/year more across all specialties than their female counterparts. This was proven in our survey as well. And more importantly WHY? USA Today has an interesting take on this. They theorize that women frequently leave the workforce to care for children or family issues. When they return to work, they typically return to the same salary/hourly rate that they left with while men, who traditionally don't take time off from work for child care, continue up the salary scale. AN has had discussions also about the earnings disparity.

Stubborn Pay Gap is Found in Nursing: Males Earn $5100 more/Yr details a JAMA study released in March 2015 which was partially compiled by census data. Several posters in this thread agreed with all these findings by providing anecdotal incidents.

Another thread, from 2011, Male Nurses on the Rise and they Make More Money provides us with more possible reasons for this disparity: men work more overtime hours, men work more off-shifts and more males work in the higher acuity units like ICU and ER. Some members also pointed out that males seem more willing to try to negotiate for a higher salary when hired.

So, let's get some more input - why do you think male nurses earn more than female nurses?

References:

Male Registered Nurses Make Thousands More in Salary than Female Counterparts

Women Dominate Nursing, Yet Men Make More

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Be married to a corporate executive. She will make more, much more, than her now rn so

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

MiniNurseintraining said:

What the hell I'm talking about, is what the hell I said.

The person I quoted separated women and minorities as if there is no such thing as nonwhite women or if your in a white majority country, minority women. I've only ever hear white people, especially white women separate women, minority and men.

I hate labels and I hate seeing others in such nice little boxes. Why say minorities and men get special privileges over women when hiring? So my observation is that she seem to think minorities and women are two separate category as if minority women do not exist.

When have minorities ever gotten special treatment over women? And when you say minorities do you mean men who are nonwhite or any none white person?

It's ********, I've upvoted some of your comments but you seem to act dumb with mine......... The women have always been a protected class, just like minorities, lgbt, etc. Why the hell does she say minority and men get special treatment when it comes to hiring?????

I'm assuming she's neither a minority or a man, so not a man, not a black woman, not a Latin woman, not Asian, but white and woman..... Give me a break with the cluelessness. The comment rubbed me the wrong way, she's white she gets privilege, this whole thread is asking whether or not "men" get paid more than "women" because their men etc.

This whole thread is about privilege and yet you didn't understand my comment? Hmmmmmmm, I don't make a lot of comments but that needed to be said. Take from it whatever you like.

The previous poster was describing hiring and admissions practices where she was employed. So save your indignation for the old white men who created the policies.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Ruby Vee said:

The previous poster was describing hiring and admissions practices where she was employed. So save your indignation for the old white men who created the policies.

I was waiting to come back and address her post when I wasn't using a phone and could do it justice. But I see that Ruby Vee addressed it much more succinctly than I would have. "Mininurseintraining" - llg was not endorsing anything or claiming any personal beliefs or opinions, she was simply stating the hiring policy at the university where she worked. Your rant was misplaced.

[Stearnsy]

I work 4-6 shifts per week while my female counterparts work 3, sometimes 4.

Yeah, I make a lot more.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Stearnsy said:

I work 4-6 shifts per week while my female counterparts work 3, sometimes 4.

Yeah, I make a lot more.

I'm pretty sure that's not what the studies are talking about. They're talking about salary, not gross income.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Stearnsy said:

I work 4-6 shifts per week while my female counterparts work 3, sometimes 4.

Yeah, I make a lot more.

But how much do you make per hour compared to how much your female counterparts work?

It's interesting that some folks don't see discrimination, even when it is pointed out to them, unless THEY are the ones being discriminated against.

[MikeFromMT]

Gross income is the total amount of pay you receive before taxes and expenses, salary is a fixed pay for a year regardless of hours worked.

A person who has a salary of $50,000 per year has a gross income of $50,000, an hourly employee who makes $25 per hour and works 2,000 hours per year also makes $50,000 in gross income.

The difference is that the hourly employee can make more or less money based upon hours worked.

The surveys are about gross income, not hourly pay or salary.

[tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN]

When the results of the allnurses survey are released, you will be able to see hourly pay too. And you will be able to compare the hourly pay of males and females, yrs of experience, degree, etc.

[MikeFromMT]

I was very concerned that my wife and all the other women who work in healthcare are being discriminated against and that I may be getting more than my fair share, so I went here Oregon Nurses Association to make sure...nope, nothing about men vs women in our pay contracts, gosh, I'm confused, could I make more money because I work more shifts and choose a riskier position? that's not fair either right?

When it comes to nurse pay, it's not about what's between your legs, but what's between your ears that matters.

[FNP2bMRL3]

Why do men make more......? Really you have to ask?

[Quo Vadis]

In my country it's all about who is the 'head' of the family. Generally, it's the husband but if he doesn't have a job, it's the woman who's considered the head. You are paid a certain amount per month extra according to how many people you are in charge of. If you are not considered the head of your family, you just get the standard barema for the amount of years you've worked as a nurse. Same thing when you are single. You have nothing or nobody extra to take care of, so you just get the standard amount of money according to your experience.

[GM2RN]

ThatBigGuy said:

I did a quick survey of my coworkers, on a specialty unit in the South.

We consist of 30% men, 70% women.

Our unit pays based by years of experience, on a pay scale. However, if you work on your clinical ladder, you can earn more via bonuses.

Of the male nurses, 71% of us are actively working on our clinical ladders, while only 19% of the females are.

The top of the clinical ladder is worth $6000 a year extra.

It appears that 42% of the male nurses are the sole earners for their families, while there seems to be a debate among the women polled whether or not one or two of their fellow female nurses are the sole income earners (~6% to 12%).

All of the men working on their clinical ladders are doing it to raise their net income, and increase future earning potential. I did not ask the females working on their ladders so pointedly, so I cannot accurately speak to their motivations.

It would seem that, on my unit, men are earning more because they are actively seeking to increase their earnings.

Curious, why would being the sole earner for the family make any difference one way or the other? I know that many years ago employers used to use that as an excuse to pay men more, but why would that matter today?