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I was wondering how people have dealt with unequal or fair pay. As a female I found out a male coworker who was just hired with less years as a PA and no years in that speciality (I have 6) getting paid the same as myself. 
I have put in my notice to leave the practice after bringing it to their attention in my review and in same review my earning potential decreased (increased salary decrease bonus). In which meeting they admitted they trusted me more and valued me more. 

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US Acute Care Solutions pay is so bipolar (no offense to anyone who is bipolar) they can't figure out what they want to pay anyone, so they wind up paying everyone the same.

Male, 10+ years in EM, averages 7+ RVU/hr gets the same pay as a female NP, 1 year in EM, who averages 3 RVU/hr.

Equity isnt so good.

 

hope you land in greener pastures!

 

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Every company I have ever worked with had straight forward pay policies with X years experience = step Y or a single base pay + production. 

I would not tolerate being paid less than someone with lesser experience regardless of the perceived logic behind it(unless it was a specific differential for all nights or weekends evenly applied to everyone). 

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On 2/1/2024 at 3:45 PM, SeattlePA17 said:

I was wondering how people have dealt with unequal or fair pay.

Negotiate your worth aggressively and don't compare yourself to others. Employers don't respond well to "So-and-so is making more than me, so I want a raise" or "I think I deserve more money so I want a raise." They want to hear objective reasons why. I'm not saying that's how it should be or that's what you're doing, but that's been my experience. 

It may also depend on the situation and employer. For example, despite less direct experience in the specialty, I got paid more than some of the current colleagues who had been there for a few years because the hospital system used years of experience for their pay scale and I had more years as a PA. That place was also very particular about who they wanted to hire and were willing to pay more. Another example is of my friend who was just hired at a hospital and got max pay with only some experience in the subspecialty because they negotiated well and the hospital has an urgent hiring need. 

If they don't value my worth, then I walk. 

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33 minutes ago, EMEDPA said:

I love experience based pay. My newest job started me at their top tier pay for > 20 years of experience even though I had never worked for them before. 

For sure, that's how it should be! I will say it would be nice for employers to also reward their current staff and maintain competitive pay throughout the years so folks want to stay and feel appreciated. 

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Yeah, I tried to negotiate to which it was just told they do trust and appreciate me more and realize all I have done but still not much done about it. I agree I think pay should be on years as a PA and maybe some incentive within the speciality for retention but at very least years as PA experience as basis for pay. It would had avoided the situation I was placed in. 
I have walked and hopefully greener. 

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Also in EM:

I've experienced:

  • (mostly) across the board hourly rate for the site +/- night shift differential
  • (TeamHealth) some small increases in hourly rate for length of service, subject to variations on desperation of site to fill shifts/get new hires

Both can easily cause a newer hire to get paid the same as a long serving employee, independent of gender.

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Why might an employer prefer a male PA? Male PAs don't take much sick leave, and almost never to care for anyone else. They never get pregnant, and rarely move for a family member's job.

None of those things have anything to do with patient care, but everything to do with organizational predictability, even though each potentially disruptive protected class activity is relatively rare in comparison to the total time worked.  We as a society wouldn't have to outlaw sex-based discrimination if someone didn't think it was a good idea.

Male PAs are a minority and shrinking as a total percentage of PAs: https://www.nccpa.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2022-Recently-Certified-Report-11_8-final.pdf p. 9 notes 1.5% sex-ratio shift over past year, translating per https://www.nccpa.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2022-Statistical-Profile-of-Board-Certified-PAs.pdf to a 1.9% sex-ratio swing in PAs practicing. It's not all about old male PAs retiring, although if you look at the graph on p. 11, you'll see staggering disparities with 3x females PAs in their 30s, and 4.5x females under 30.

Maybe it's just DEI hiring kicking in, reflecting the paucity of male PAs and trying to hire a workforce that looks like our patient population despite an oversupply of female PAs.... But I doubt it.

Hiring decisions are often made on the basis of cost-of-replacement, not merit, and so yeah, a newer PA is often going to get a better salary, as many employers are terrible at keeping up with the fair market value of professional employees.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hmmm, guess I'm further down the tail of that distribution.  In an informal conversation with the CEO of my employer, I'm in the top 2% by age of all providers at 66.  Even my PA school class was 75% female and  most of the students were younger than my kids at the time.  That doesn't even take into account that now I'm a great-grand-PA.  👴

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