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in-pacents PA Salary

The 2017 AAPA Salary Report Shows Gender Discrepancy but Does Not Account for all Factors Contributing to Salary

2017 PA Salary and Gender

The recently released 2017 AAPA Salary Report showed that Female Physician Assistants are paid 89 cents for every dollar that men are paid. This was after factors such as years of experience, hours worked, specialty, whether a bonus was received, if a PA was in a leadership role or owns part of a practice was taken into account. Although I think it is important to look at the differences in pay, and that people should not be paid differently solely based on gender there are too many factors that go into someone’s salary that it is important that we don’t put too much weight into the statistics of this report.

If we are going to talk about statistics lets first talk about the salary survey. There were 7,225 PAs who responded to the survey; that’s about 6% of 115,000 certified PAs. That makes for a small sample size and quite possibly the women who are making the most don’t feel like they have the time to fill out a salary survey.

A very important factor that affects salary that is not accounted for in the survey is someone’s ability or willingness to negotiate a higher salary; if you’re willing to accept an initial offer without negotiating that is not due to gender bias. The initial offer might be the same for males and females but if someone is more skilled in negotiation than they might end up with a higher salary to start.

“Looking at salaries as they are reported does not allow us to take into account factors that may affect salary.”

The PAEA Student Report 1 showed that the median age for female students at the end of their PA program was 26.3 years old compared to 29.1 years old for males. With males being older on average compared to females at the time of graduation this may account for higher starting salaries. Taking gender totally out of the equation a person who is older is going to have more life and work experience and most likely has a better feel for negotiating their salary.

“This difference is likely compounded as PAs progress through their career, since salary increases are often based on the previous year’s salary and new employers base a PA’s starting salary in part on their previous salary. A salary disparity that begins on a PA’s first day on the job will probably have lifelong implications for the PA’s compensation level.” That initial offer that someone accepts can make a difference down the road.

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I find it hard to believe that we are at a place where people are consciously giving lower salaries based on gender. I don’t think two new graduates of different genders would be given different salary offers solely based on their gender. I think that we should be fare and should not discriminate based on gender, however there are a lot of factors that can affect a salary offer, but ability to negotiate is probably the largest factor and is not accounted for in a salary survey.

It’s not always about money either, while we like to look at salary there might be good reasons for why someone is taking a lower salary. The position they are looking at might give them more flexibility to stay home or be closer to their children’s school. It’s ok to not have the highest salary if you’re happy with what you’re getting and what your situation has to offer. Outside factors beyond the number of someone’s salary are also important to note.

By constantly talking about gender wage gaps we just bring attention to the difference of male and female. If we really want equality we need to stop talking about the difference in genders and instead start talking about industry standards. Don’t make it a male vs female, black vs white issue unless you find in your work place that the starting salary for a male vs a female is different we don’t need to talk about gender gaps.  It doesn’t matter if you’re male or female if you’re not getting paid what the industry is getting paid, you need to evaluate if you’re content with your current situation and if the other benefits are worth taking a lower salary.

If you feel like you’re underpaid don’t blame it on the salary report. Do something about it! Don’t sit there and say that it’s because the salary report says females are paid less. Figure out what you think is a fair wage and talk to your employer about it. If they don’t want to pay you the industry standard or if you feel like you’re underpaid then it is up to you start looking elsewhere and find a position where you feel you’re getting paid fairly.

Have you personally seen a difference in pay based on gender? What have you done about it? Please comment below on the original article, share with your friends and sign up to receive future posts by email!