Women may have a long history in the nursing profession, but that doesn’t mean that female nurses have a leg up on the guys when it comes to overall salary. According to recent reporting by NPR, it turns out that male nurses make anywhere from $3,900 to $7,700 more than their female counterparts. Cue disgust and lady rage.
Admittedly, the wage gap is a dynamic and complex issue that’s about way more than an apples-to-apples assessment of who makes more money. But because the nursing field has traditionally been a woman’s world, it stands to reason that women should have more financial traction in the space by now—after all, men only make up 9% of the entire industry (a three-fold increase from 1970). So where’s the earnings chasm coming from?
Well, according to researchers who study nursing, this particular earnings gap is difficult to unpack: Experts chalk it up to men having better negotiation skills, women receiving priority shifts that pay less, and of course the generic catchall of gender discrimination. But while the myriad reasons male nurses make more money are not entirely crystal clear, one thing certainly is: It’s unacceptable, and something’s gotta give.
