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Racial and Gender Disparities in the Physician Assistant Profession
Author(s) -
Smith Darron T.,
Jacobson Cardell K.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
health services research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.706
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1475-6773
pISSN - 0017-9124
DOI - 10.1111/1475-6773.12358
Subject(s) - salary , bivariate analysis , ethnic group , medicine , demography , multivariate analysis , family medicine , psychology , political science , statistics , sociology , law , mathematics
Objective To examine whether racial, gender, and ethnic salary disparities exist in the physician assistant ( PA ) profession and what factors, if any, are associated with the differentials. Data Sources/Study Setting We use a nationally representative survey of 15,105 PA s from the American Academy of Physician Assistants ( AAPA ). Study Design We use bivariate and multivariate statistics to analyze pay differentials from the 2009 AAPA survey. Principle Findings Women represent nearly two‐thirds of the profession but receive approximately $18,000 less in primary compensation. The differential reduces to just over $9,500 when the analysis includes a variety of other variables. According to AAPA survey, minority PA s tend to make slightly higher salaries than White PA s nationally, although the differences are not statistically significant once the control variables are included in the analysis. Conclusions Despite the rough parity in primary salary, PA s of color are vastly underrepresented in the profession. The salaries of women lag in comparison to their male counterparts.