Even In Nursing, Men Earn More Than Women

Fruit Sucker · Mar 25, 2015

I find this interesting based on the number of men who cry discrimination/sexism in nursing. There was a thread on here not too long ago about how "unfair" it is that there are fewer men in nursing.

BrandonLPN, LPN · Mar 25, 2015

But one has to ask: Are a higher proportion of male nurses advanced practice RNs than female nurses? Do a higher portion of male nurses work in higher paying specialties? If the answer is yes, this could skew the results.

AJJKRN · Mar 25, 2015

But one has to ask: Are a higher proportion of male nurses advanced practice RNs than female nurses? Do a higher portion of male nurses work in higher paying specialties? If the answer is yes, this could skew the results.

Yep, I read a few studies (during my RN to BSN days) that trended that both men and women of minorities tended to advance their nursing careers/education more often than non-minority women. I remember one trend was that more CRNA's tended to be males and another trend showed that African American females were more likely to advance to APN's.

Anna S, RN · Mar 25, 2015

But one has to ask: Are a higher proportion of male nurses advanced practice RNs than female nurses? Do a higher portion of male nurses work in higher paying specialties? If the answer is yes, this could skew the results.

All of that is accounted for in the study. Read the full article.

Men earn more than women in the same specialties.

[h=1]Salary Gaps Between Male And Female Registered Nurses[/h]

By work setting
By clinical specialty
By job position

Anna S, RN · Mar 25, 2015

Yep, I read a few studies (during my RN to BSN days) that trended that both men and women of minorities tended to advance their nursing careers/education more often than non-minority women. I remember one trend was that more CRNA's tended to be males and another trend showed that African American females were more likely to advance to APN's.

"The biggest disparity was for nurse anesthetists, with men earning $17,290 more."

allnurses Guide · Mar 25, 2015

There is no separation made of day vs night or other differentials. It looks only at gross income. There is no control group. Without these things, this is not so much a study as an anecdote based on raw data. I'm not saying it might not be true, but proving it reliably requires a much better quality study than this.

klone, MSN, RN · Mar 25, 2015

Oh, I didn't realize there were two threads! This is what I wrote in the other thread on the topic:

In my own anecdotal, n=2 sample, I would have to say that is correct. My husband and I both have the exact same number of years of experience. Added to that, I have a BSN and am almost done with my MSN. He has an ADN. And he has ALWAYS made between $5-10K/year more than I. I chalked it up to totally different areas of nursing (I have always worked for large hospital networks, he has always worked for corporate-owned hospices), but I wonder how his salary compares to women in the same roles he has worked.

Libby1987 · Mar 25, 2015

"The biggest disparity was for nurse anesthetists, with men earning $17,290 more."

My sister's initial wage in her first contract out of school exceeded any max wages with experience that I can find. She doesn't work typically though, I like any other mom I've known.

Alex Egan, LPN, EMT-B · Mar 25, 2015

I think that a lot of this can be chalked up Tsimshian negotiation. I have always bargined for higher wages. I am always pushing for money and benefits. I feel as though woman are less likey to do this. That has been my expearence with my wife.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Apr 1, 2015

I've answered this in the other thread, but it hasn't gotten as much traffic as this one.

My husband and I are both nurses. I have five more years of experience, a Master's to his diploma and have "gone the extra mile" to found a VAD team, publish articles, sit on committees, etc. At our last job, he was making a bit more than me, which we both understood was because he'd been at the institution five years longer.

When we moved cross country, we started new jobs in the same ICU in the same hospital for the same wage even though I had more experience, more education and more stuff on my resume. (He didn't even bother with a resume; just called up the manager who had just hired me and asked for a job.) We were hired into the second level of the clinical ladder and informed that after a year, if we jumped through the hoops (taught a class, joined a committee, completed a project, etc.) we'd advance to the fourth level on the ladder with a significant pay increase. DH announced to all and sundry that he wasn't going to jump through any hoops. And he didn't. I jumped through the hoops and then some.

At the end of a year, DH was advanced to the fourth level and got a pay raise. I was told "keep doing what you're doing, and we'll see about advancing you next year." Every year, we got raises based on percentages of the pay level, so every year our salaries got further and further apart based on that first big pay jump. And then we got a new manager.

It was discovered that the previous manager had consistently overpaid the men on our unit relative to the women, even though the women were doing the same job or were doing more extra work. The men were given the choice to start doing the job they were being paid for, including the committee work, the teaching, the projects, etc. or to voluntarily drop back to the pay level appropriate to the work they were actually doing. Some left. Some stepped up. There is still an enormous gender gap at our facility but not any more in our unit. I love my new manager.

klone, MSN, RN · Apr 1, 2015

I'm dying to know - what did your husband choose to do? Did he start jumping through hoops, or did he leave?