Contributing Factors to Health Administration Male-Female Salary Differences over Time: An Oaxaca-Blinder...

We examine attributes associated with salary for women and men using a pooled cross-sectional triennial survey from 2009 to 2021. Overall, women earned $25,684 less. An Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach explained 66% of the overall salary gap with several key variables. Specifically, females had fewer years since obtaining a terminal degree (22.4% of the explained gap) and fewer total published articles (18.2% of gap); and were less likely to work in a business school (9% of gap), hold an administrative position (4.5% of gap), and be in a tenured/tenured track position (3.5% of gap). After controlling for other characteristics, 34% of the overall salary gap ($8,706) remained unexplained. From 2009 to 2018, models explained an increasingly higher proportion of the salary gap. However, the unexplained proportion of the gap increased substantially in 2021, possibly due to changes that occurred during the pandemic. Institutional leaders could restructure rewards systems to address amenable factors contributing to salary gaps by assuring that women have the mentorship and opportunities to publish and secure tenure-track and administrative/leadership positions. Such changes may contribute to closing the pay gap and may require release time from responsibilities that do not contribute to salary rewards.