Reply #22: This is bunk... sorry people

[K Gardner]

It'd almost be nice to think that if I were male I'd make more doing what I do, but this simply is not true. First of all, you need to look at the fact that this article was a voluntarily submitted "survey" of "respondents", back in 2001. But aside from that, the writer did not take into account why nursing salaries fluctuate so widely. And it has nothing to do with sex.

I have been an RN for over 22 years. I've worked Level One ER/critical care and hold multiple advanced certifications; have worked staff in major trauma centers and small rural areas, done travel nursing and worked per diem through agencies. While following my chosen career, I have also followed the money. In my field of expertise I work with many male nurses. There is no pay disparity based on gender. There is pay disparity based on region, years of experience, type of job (FT, PT, Per Diem, Travel, Contract) - but most of all there is disparity because of NUMBER OF HOURS WORKED PER WEEK :-)

Unless an RN holds a management position, we are paid by the hour, period. For example, in the South nurses are typically paid very low staff wages, even for large hospitals. $21/hr is ridiculous, but common. The same nurse working at the same hospital, but working via a travel agency will make $35/hr plus housing, much of that tax-free. In the northeast, an RN who works staff will make $30-40/hr or more; the agency nurse around $40/hr. In California, the mothership of the nursing industry, RNs are actually being paid what they are worth because they have had the guts to unionize and do so strongly. These RNs make easily six-figure incomes, again, depending on how much they work and where. Again, the guys make the same as the girls - this study did not take into account where the work was done; how many hrs/wk were worked and what type of nursing was being done.

This is truly an oversimplification, but for the sake of brevity, let me assure everyone that male nurses and female nurses are paid by the same scale. This scale has to do with just about everything BUT gender :-) And in most of the United States, it is entirely too low for the back-breaking, gut-wrenching and exhausting work we do under generally overcrowded and understaffed conditions.

Edited to add: In reviewing the OP, I think the question might have been more of pay disparity based on occupation rather than pay disparity based on gender. On that point, I would definitely agree that BECAUSE nursing has typically been a female-dominated profession, the pay has been lower than it would have been had MEN been in the majority all along. Things are evening out now, with more men coming into nursing, but in most parts of the country is still woefully inadequate. Unless and until nursing is unionized nationally, this will not change.