A gender wage gap among physician assistants continues to persist, with female PAs earning $9,010 less than their male counterparts in 2018, according to new research.
The research, published in the November 2020 edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, is based on data from the AAPA salary survey taken in February 2019 examining salary for 2018. For the 2020 study, survey responses were included from more than 8,300 nonretired, U.S.-based physician assistants.
After accounting for a variety of compensation-related factors, including specialty, hours worked and leadership role, the average female PAs earned $113,403.59 in 2018 compared to male PAs, who earned $122,413.17, according to the study, a difference of $9,010.
Among new PAs, female PAs were paid nearly 93 cents for every dollar male PAs earned in 2018, and the pay gap widened by $201 for each year of experience, the study found.
"A wage gap between male and female PAs persists even after including all compensation types and controlling for compensation-related factors that may differ between male and female PAs," researchers concluded. "Proposed policy implications could begin to mitigate the gap."