ITHACA, NY – Female veterinarians make less than their male counterparts. New research from Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine found that the top quarter of the workforce had an annual gap of around $ 100,000.
Inequality particularly affects the youngest graduates and the upper half of the workforce. This is the result of the study, the first comprehensive study on the pay gap in the veterinary sector.
“Veterinarians can travel many paths in their careers, all of which have an impact on earnings potential,” said senior author of the paper, Dr. Clinton Neill, assistant professor in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostics.
“Similar to the world of human medicine, we have found that the pay gap was larger at the beginning of their careers, but disappears after about 25 years. This has a large impact on wealth and lifelong income, as men consequently have a larger one be sum of wealth at the end of their careers because of this. ”
Neill and his staff examined the income, experience, and certification of specialist owners.
The reasons for income inequality are difficult to identify. The researchers cite unconscious bias, size of the practices, less external funding, and societal expectations as possible factors.
The industry-wide impact of this trend can be linked to some common misconceptions, Neill said. While they found ownership disparities, this did not take into account the overall pay gap.
Their analysis showed that the type of property also plays a role. For example, partnerships are more beneficial to women’s income potential than sole proprietorships, while any form of ownership benefits men’s income. In terms of the number of years of work, the study found that men with less experience move to higher income brackets than women.
While the paper aimed to lay the groundwork for more solution-oriented studies, the researchers suggested that measures such as industry-wide income transparency could help fill the gap.
###
The paper was published March 15 in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association and is also the first peer-reviewed publication for the newly established Center for Veterinary Business and Economics.
Check out this Cornell Chronicle story for more information.
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the correctness of the press releases published on EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of information via the EurekAlert system.
