Study: Male nurses make more than female nurses

A new study finds that despite the fact that women outnumber men in nursing by more than 10 to 1, men still make more money.

In a study published Tuesday in JAMA, researchers looked at data from the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses, which ended in 2008, and the Census Bureau's American Community Survey 2001-2013. After controlling for age, race, marital status, and number of children at home, they found that males out-earned females by almost $7,700 per year in outpatient settings and close to $3,900 in hospitals. The biggest pay gap was for nurse anesthetists, with men making $17,290 more.

Ulrike Muench, the study's lead author and an assistant professor of nursing at the University of California, San Francisco, told NPR the researchers are not entirely sure why there is such pay disparity. Some experts suggest that men are more likely to negotiate for a higher salary, others say that men work more on nights and weekends, when the pay can be better, and still others believe it comes down to gender discrimination. Whatever the reason, it's "dismaying," says Peter McMenamin, health economist at the American Nurses Association. "We would like any differentials in pay to be based on skills and experience and not on gender."

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