To examine whether racial, gender, and ethnic salary disparities exist in the physician assistant () profession and what factors, if any, are associated with the differentials.
Data Sources/Study Setting
We use a nationally representative survey of 15,105 s from the American Academy of Physician Assistants ().
We use bivariate and multivariate statistics to analyze pay differentials from the 2009 survey.
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 survey, minority s tend to make slightly higher salaries than White s nationally, although the differences are not statistically significant once the control variables are included in the analysis.
Despite the rough parity in primary salary, s of color are vastly underrepresented in the profession. The salaries of women lag in comparison to their male counterparts.
