Even In Nursing, Men Earn More Than Women

Ruby Vee, BSN · Apr 2, 2015

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

He made a lateral transfer out of the unit to somewhere there was still a gender gap (at least according to the few females who work there.)

TiffyRN, BSN, PhD · Apr 2, 2015

Yes, this is a not very thread on the "Nursing News" section of AN. Maybe they can merge? I'm copy/pasting parts of my comments here since this thread seems more active.

Short version of my first posting. . .

From my limited experience with my husband and I in pretty equivalent positions in two different hospitals, I make more per hour. He makes more per year. Why? He works more hours. He will eventually make more because the pay grade at his hospital goes higher. i could have that higher pay grade if I hired into his hospital.

Clip from my second posting which was way too long, so I will be posting it in several sections, I was responding to Ruby's comments on her and her husband's experiences with pay gap:

"Ruby,

That sounds legitimate. I'm calling that a gender gap.

I'm a fairly liberal thinker about most things, including feminist issues. But the gender pay gap annoys me. I feel there are some legitimate instances in the US, but the loudest voices out there obscure the issue by continuing to insult the intelligence of some of us. Don't trot out the general pay of women versus men unless you qualify that it really is for the same job, same hours. And when you throw nursing in the mix, make sure Susie was working as many nights and weekend shifts as Robert.

My feeling is that women cave to family obligations more than men, largely due to cultural expectations for women that are not present for the men.

The stats NRSKarenRN presented us (she posted the article in the other thread) sounded pretty impressive, but I still want to know, were the base wages the same? Not the yearly income unless you are going to make sure to control for overtime and weekend/night shifts.

I know where my husband works, men occupy a larger proportion of the weekend/night workers (a specific plan they sign up for) and they also willingly sign up more for the extra overtime when it is offered. "

TiffyRN, BSN, PhD · Apr 2, 2015

Continuation of my posting from the other thread. . .

"I'm including a link to an article where one of the assertions is that unmarried childless women actually earn more than unmarried men. That might partially explain my situation, I'm childless and though married, I've really never been expected to do the "wifely" duties of housecleaning, grocery shopping and laundry. I do them, when I can, but it's really very equal. Oh, and I'm one of those people that works the weekend/night plan. One reason I can do it is because of lack of family responsibilities. Not many moms (at least not of school age & younger kids) work this shift, at least not for more than a few months.

The article also mentions how women business owners make less than male business owners. Wait, how is that possible? Women pay themselves less when they are the boss? Women's values are different when it comes to owning business, it's more about fulfillment and shorter work week, less about bringing home the largest chunk of bacon.

What's my point? I just think we sometimes forget there is a price to pay for being the ones who bear the children and (in our culture, like most) shoulder most of the child-rearing responsibilities.

I would love to live in a country that protects women's jobs for a year after they give birth and provides decent childcare options and facilities but that is not our US reality.

But let's fight the right battle and right now, I don't think it's that employers pay women less for equal work. Not in the majority of the cases.

ETA: I just figured up what my weekend plan pays, and it's insane, it's like over $9,000. That is if I was compared to another non-plan person who worked as many weekend nights as I do (all of them!). It's $25,000 more a year than a nurse who would work only day shift, no weekends at all. I think I found the secret to the skewed numbers for nursing salaries!!

The Gender Pay Gap is a Complete Myth - CBS News