We have not yet found the magic bullet to end the gender discrimination and inequality that pervade our society. The inequalities are apparent in the ways we socialize our children, care for our sick, and pay our workers.
Sometimes it can seem abstract; there is often no data to bring forth charges, no facts to back up accusations. But when it comes to paying our equally qualified male and female workers, the story is different. Facts and figures exist in the balance sheets and paystubs that indicate little equality in pay for the work of men and women.
Follow the money. The end of pay inequity might just be the first, and I submit most reliable, way to bring gender equity to other areas in which women struggle.
When the numbers of nurses, physicians, and other health care workers are combined, the health care work force is more than three-quarters (76.8 percent) female. There are 2.8 million are nurses, 92 percent of whom are women. This massive percentage—this majority—should receive equal, if not higher salaries, right?
Well, nursing has been dominated by women for centuries, but the median weekly salary for female nurses is 13.5 percent less than that for the male nurses. This makes no sense. Can there be so many more male nurses in the higher-paid nursing specialties tipping the scales? I don’t think so. Furthermore, it would seem that higher, seniority-based salaries of women nurses would overcome the possible overrepresentation of male nurses in higher-paying nursing jobs.
The data show that we are not merely dealing with a “numbers game.” The number of women in a given field does not forestall pay inequity. Thus, it is a myth that bringing more women into the workplace will not solve the inequality.
The pay differences (13–20 percent) are just small enough to go undetected. They may be thought to be inconsequential by the worker. Or more likely, the difference is not big enough to be worth the time or trouble of protest.
But they are.
Setting all women—particularly those in health care—on the course to equitable pay can and must be the first step to minimizing, or dare I say eliminating, gender discrimination across the board.
How?
Eliminate even the smallest of pay differences. Create uniform models of pay equity analysis. A truly level playing field requires that job descriptions are standardized across medical schools and hospital administrations. This is not impossible; in fact, well-accepted principles of multiple regression analyses are already available and most certainly implementable. The difficulty will be in eliminating the pernicious process whereby an employer creates bogus job descriptions to circumvent the realities of jobs that have the same or similar value.
Engage in proactive intervention. This refers to setting standards that must be met, not just to please the employer or to avoid lawsuits, but because it is a mandate (not to mention that it’s “right”). Audits and fines must be imposed if the numbers do not add up. If an organization balances its books on an inequitable pay scale, the organization will be fined, lose its accreditation or license, or receive less federal funding until it can meet equity standards.
Take the burden of proof off of the victim and place it on the perpetrator. Litigation is more of a punishment to the wronged party than is the wage gap. The average woman claiming gender discrimination spends eight to 10 years navigating a legal labyrinth at enormous cost. Only the foolhardy or the most stubborn among us would undertake such a journey.
Institute fair hiring practices with measureable pay scales. Start with federal or state institutions that track everything (but fair wages) and with each new hire, based on a set of vital statistics (even incorporating weighted scales for types and duration of prior experience), examine the potential for gender bias. At first this may sound daunting, but it is a lot cheaper than breaking the law.
Once these mandates take effect, just imagine what a female employee could do with all the extra money (that she should have been getting in the first place)! For nurses, that $150/week could hire that nurse some additional household help, which in turn will make her more productive at work.
Maybe she would have some free time to spend with her family or even, heaven forbid, take care of herself. Go shopping, get her hair done, maybe even get that mammogram she has been putting off for years. Or maybe write that paper on some interesting research topic or volunteer to go to her kids’ schools and interact as a parent (or as a health care worker).
Life would be so much more fulfilling and your work would be so much less stressful if you weren’t constantly trying to adjust everything around the simple fact that every week you get 15 to 20 percent less for the work you do because you are not a man.
This post was written by Linda Brodsky, pediatric otolaryngologist and advocate for gender and pay equity. Her blogs can also be read at The Brodsky Blog.
