Growing Pay Gap Between Male and Female Nurses in Australia

It’s hard to believe that in today’s society, where women are said to be treated as equal to men, that there is still a pay gap between the sexes. In fact, many people believe that pay is now equal across the genders, and many people choose to believe this even after seeing facts that prove otherwise.

It is often particularly shocking to learn about the huge pay gap that exists between male and female employees in the nursing profession as it is still largely seen as a female orientated profession.

This attitude that nursing is a “girl’s job” is not only destructive, it’s also wholly untrue. A male nurse has completed the same qualifications as a female nurse. He has had to fund his studies the same as her, buy nursing essay the same as her, and take the same exams as her. He will also have completed the same on the job training as her and undergone the same ridiculously long hours as her.

Why then do we still insist on saying that female nurses are somehow better? It is truly baffling isn’t it?

Perhaps the idea was coined by the same genius who still believes it’s acceptable to pay female employees less money for the exact same role. Maybe by convincing a large majority of men that nursing isn’t for them, the industry can save a whole lot of money by significantly underpaying its female nurses.

Remember – she has the same education, the same qualifications and has worked the same hours. Why then does she earn less than her male counterpart?

That’s the question that many of us are asking. Why? And no one seems to have an answer. It’s certainly not fair, nor is it good business practice, yet it continues to happen every day. And we, as a society, continue to allow it.

If you are under any doubts that this is a real issue, in 2014, according to the research of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, female nurses where being paid 29.1% less than male nurses. Yes, 29.1%! And that figure isn’t getting any better.

How can we challenge it? Well, we have to firstly accept that it’s a real issue. And then we have to stand together as a society and tell the government that we will no longer accept pay gaps between genders in nursing or any other industry.