SPECIAL ARTICLE

Racial and ethnic differences in physician assistant salaries Cardell K. Jacobson, PhD; Darron T. Smith, PhD, PA-C

ABSTRACT Two recent reports using different data sets concluded that female physician assistants (PAs) earn substantially less than male PAs. Similar data comparing the effect of race and ethnicity on salary have not been compiled. This article examines the possibility of racial and ethnic salary disparities in PA salaries using data from the 2009 survey of members of the American Academy of Physician Assistants. Keywords: physician assistant, workforce diversity, racial, ethnic, salary disparities, AAPA survey

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METHOD Data The 2009 AAPA Annual Survey was used because its data were comparable to the recent reports of sex differences in salary in the profession. The AAPA sent e-mails to their members and subsequent follow-up e-mails to all PAs who did not respond to the original request. They also advertized the survey in several media venues.8 The AAPA estimates that the United States has more than 90,000 PAs; it had contact information on 44,629 members, and 15,275 participated in the survey. We excluded 173 respondents Cardell K. Jacobson is a professor in the Department of Sociology at Brigham Young University in Utah. Darron T. Smith is an assistant professor in the PA program at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. The authors disclose that this study was supported by a research grant from the Physician Assistant Education Association. DOI: 10.1097/01.JAA.0000465219.19481.4d Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Physician Assistants

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everal recent articles have investigated racial/ethnic and sex salary disparities among physicians.1-5 Recently, two reports using different data sets concluded that female physician assistants (PAs) earn substantially less than male PAs.6,7 Similar data comparing PAs of different racial and ethnic groups have not been published, however. This article uses the 2009 survey of members of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) to examine possible racial and ethnic salary disparities. Several factors related to PA salaries are included as control variables in the analysis. who either reported less than $10,000 annual income (assuming they were retired or working only on an asneeded basis) or did not report their income, resulting in the final sample of 15,102 (Table 1). Measures The race and ethnicity categories were white, black, Hispanic, Asian, and other. Age was included as a continuous variable based on 10 categories of 5-year intervals. A squared term for age is included in regression models because diagnostics indicated its relationship with salary is nonlinear. Age at graduation is included in the analysis. Most PAs graduate in their late 20s or early 30s, so we grouped them into four categories (under age 25, 25 to 27 years, 28 to 33 years, and 34 years and older) to make the number about the same in each category. The number of years since graduation was grouped into six categories. Additional control variables were included. Education includes categories for associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. Medical specialty was divided into six groups: family medicine, surgery, pediatrics, internal

JAAPA Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants

Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Physician Assistants

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SPECIAL ARTICLE TABLE 1. Sample

characteristics (n=15,102)8

Attributes

Frequency

Percentage

Mean

SD

Range

Dependent variable Annual salary

$88,544

$28,430

$17,500-$210,000

0.65

0.48

(0, 1)

0.89 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.01

0.32 0.16 0.19 0.20 0.10

(0, 1) (0, 1) (0, 1) (0, 1) (0, 1)

41.23

11.07

(0, 93.5)

Main explanatory variables Female Male White Black Hispanic Asian Other

9,797 5,305 13,363 428 554 593 164

35.1 64.9 88.5 2.8 3.7 3.9 1.1

Mediators Hours worked (per week) Specialty Family medicine Surgery Pediatrics Internal medicine Emergency medicine Other Geographic region West Mountain Midwest Northeast South D.C. area Urban/rural area Urban (250K+ residents) Small city (

Racial and ethnic differences in physician assistant salaries.

Two recent reports using different data sets concluded that female physician assistants (PAs) earn substantially less than male PAs. Similar data comp...
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