Publications

Salary Differences Between Male and Female Registered Nurses in the United States

Author(s): 

Ulrike Muench, Jody Sindelar, Susan H. Busch, Peter I. Buerhaus

Date: 
March 24, 2015

Fifty years after the Equal Pay Act, the male-female salary gap has narrowed in many occupations. Yet pay inequality persists for certain occupations, including medicine and nursing. Studies have documented salary differences across clinical settings for diverse cohorts of physicians and higher salaries for male registered nurses (RNs). In nursing, analyses have not considered employment factors that could explain salary differences,6 have been cross-sectional, and have not been based on recent data. The objective of this study was to examine salaries of males and females in nursing over time and to include a more recent sample.