Wage Gap between Male and Female Nurses

Written By: Hyaal Wehab

  This week, I decided to look into wages of Nurses, and it led me to the issue of pay inequality between men and women. Recently, research has shown that the wage gap between male and female nurses continues to grow as time continues on. Studies specifically show that men make about $5,000 to $10,000 more than women annually, which leads to higher financial struggles for women rather than men, due to the fact that nursing is one of the largest, female dominant occupations in health care.

  Inequality in wages is not a new issue brought up in our society. In fact, it has been around for multiple years, and no matter how many laws or movements are issued, this issue of uneven pay continues to grow. It is surprising that an inequality in pay is an issue in nursing especially since it is currently the most female dominant field. Multiple theories have emerged from this issue; Are men simply better at negotiating promotions and raises? Do men receive higher pay because they are less likely to take off time to take care of their families and young ones? Questions like these require further analysis, but as of right now it seems as if these would be the reasoning behind the unequal pay between male and female nurses, because the gap in pay is not by coincidence, nor is it random.

  After reading this article, my main question is, why is there a wage gap? Nursing is a female dominant occupation compared to the percentage of males in the work force, but even if this is the case, what is the point of having an unequal pay rate? Whether male or female, every nurse is doing the same job and serving their community in the exact same way. It is understandable if an occupation of higher degree receives higher pay, but if they are in the same exact field, equal pay should be mandatory for all employees whether they are a man or a woman. Along with this, my next question is, how can this be fixed? Though this is a large issue brought up in this field, it seems that there is no set way of resolving this issue. Next week I will look further into the issue on the wage gap and the male to female ratio of nurses.

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