Dive Brief:
- Over the past decade, women in health IT consistently earned less than their male counterparts, and that the disparity grew over time, HIMSS reports.
- According to the HIMSS Longitudinal Compensation Assessment, the average female IT worker made 78% of male IT workers’ pay last year, down from 81% in 2006.
- The report comes as more women are holding leadership positions in health IT.
Dive Insight:
The researchers looked at four factors to see how they influenced the pay gap: Length of time at current position; level of management responsibility; type of healthcare organization; and organizational tax status.
Organizational type and tax status had the most impact, the report says. While health IT vendors/consultants paid women 91% of what they paid men, for-profit providers paid women IT professionals just 67% of what men got for the same work.
“To attract and retain talented women for the health It workforce, we must demonstrate compensation equity for women and men,” Carla Smith, executive vice president of HIMSS and head of the HIMSS North American business unit, said in a statement. “This assessment shows that while we have much work to do, there are sectors of the industry where the gender gap is closing, clearly suggesting that gender equity in compensation is possible.”
The report echoes a study by researchers at the University of Chicago, which found a compensation gap between women and men with MBAs. According to Vox, average salaries for women fresh out of business school were $115,000, versus $130,000 for men. Nine years later, men’s salaries outpaced women’s by 60% — $400,000 versus $250,000.