A dose of discrimination: the gender wage-gap between men and women in medical professions

Abstract

Medical occupations are expected to be the fastest growing jobs in the United States over the next 10 years. Presently, a wage disparity exists between women and men employed in health care. Individualist, structuralist, and feminist theories attempt to explain the reasoning behind this gender discrepancy in earnings based upon personal investments, economic hierarchies, and the process of gender discrimination. Data used in this research comes from the 2006 Current Populations Survey report, with 7,186 respondents following the necessary sample restrictions. The results indicate that, net of other factors, women working in health care professions receive a lesser rate of return on earnings than men. These findings indicate that discriminatory bias against women may exist among medical professions.