Though salary differences have narrowed between males and females in many occupations since the passage of the Equal Pay Act in 1963, the results of a study conducted by the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) showed a marked salary gap between male and female registered nurses, with males earning greater than $5000 more per year than females. The largest pay gap was noted in cardiology, and the smallest difference in the chronic care setting. Orthopedics was the only specialty area in which researchers found no significant difference. With nursing being a female dominated profession, this pay discrepancy affects more than 3 million women in the United States. Researchers gathered data from two well-known sources, for a total sample size of 290,000 registered nurses. During each year of the study, researchers found that males earned greater salaries than females. What is even more alarming is that they also found no significant changes over the course of the study.

The study did not look at the reasons for the differences in salaries, but health care professionals say a number of possibilities exist such as workplaces being interested in diversification, men being better at asking for more money, and women leaving the workplace to have children.

So what’s next? Researchers plan to analyze the reasons for the gaps in pay. In the meantime, if you are a female registered nurse, the results of the UCSF study offer an opportunity for you to advocate for yourself and ask your employer why salary differences exist between males and females in your workplace. What better time than now to eradicate gender bias once and for all?

Are you interested in entering the nursing profession? If so, you could not have chosen a better time to do so. The fastest growing field in the United States is healthcare, with more than 3.5 million jobs projected to be added to the economy by 2020. One-third of that number will be registered nurses. If you are planning to go to nursing school, you may be interested in one of the more popular specialties: neonatal nursing, midwifery, or critical care. Or maybe you’re interested in military nursing. Nursing School Hub, a website dedicated to providing resources for those interested in the nursing profession, recently posted an info-graphic article, “The Military Nurse’s Toolkit.”

The benefits of being a military nurse may tempt you: loan repayment, world travel, and the opportunity to help a broad population. It goes without saying that military nurses face risks: physical injury by enemy combatants, and psychological stress from exposure to injured and deceased soldiers. If you have not read my post about PTSD and nurses, I encourage you to read it here.

If you are not interested in military nursing, but are eager to learn about nursing-related topics, such as scholarships, must read books for nurses, top nursing schools and jobs, and where to find a job, I recommend taking a good look at Nursing School Hub’s website.