Abstract
BackgroundThe gender pay gap in the United States (US) has narrowed over the last several decades, with the female/male earnings ratio in the US increased from about 60% before the 1980s to about 79% by 2014. However, the gender pay gap among the healthcare workforce persists. The objective of this study is to estimate the gender pay gap in the US federal governmental public health workforce during 2010–2018.MethodsWe used an administrative dataset including annual pay rates and job characteristics of employees of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Employees’ gender was classified based on first names. Regression analyses were used to estimate the gender pay gap using the predicted gender.ResultsFemale employees of the DHHS earned about 13% less than men in 2010, and 9.2% less in 2018. Occupation, pay plan, and location explained more than half of the gender pay gap. Controlling for job grade further reduces the gap. The unexplained portion of the gender pay gap in 2018 was between 1.0 and 3.5%. Female employees had a slight advantage in terms of pay increase over the study period.ConclusionsWhile the gender pay gap has narrowed within the last two decades, the pay gap between female and male employees in the federal governmental public health workforce persists and warrants continuing attention and research. Continued efforts should be implemented to reduce the gender pay gap among the health workforce.
Highlights
The gender pay gap in the United States (US) has narrowed over the last several decades, with the female/male earnings ratio in the US increased from about 60% before the 1980s to about 79% by 2014
A sharp drop in the number of Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) employees shown in the FedsDataCenter.com data occurred in 2015
The gender pay gap is a social determinant of health that affects the outcomes of the public health system
Summary
The gender pay gap in the United States (US) has narrowed over the last several decades, with the female/male earnings ratio in the US increased from about 60% before the 1980s to about 79% by 2014. The gender pay gap among the healthcare workforce persists. The United States (US) has seen a narrowing gender pay gap over the last two decades [1]. Chen et al Hum Resour Health (2021) 19:65 To put it into context, we compare the gender pay gap in the US with other countries. In the UK, female chief executive officers (CEOs) had increased their representation from 37 to 47% during 2012–2018, with a gender pay gap narrowed to become insignificant [5]. Gender wage gap varied across occupations among a sample of 10,066 Australian full-time employees within the health sector during 2005–2006, with an adjusted pay gap of 16.7% [8]
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