Geography often accounts for significant differences in pay rates for the same job. When employees evaluate where to work, they take into consideration where they can earn the highest value for their services. Likewise, employers often attempt to locate facilities in areas with lower prevailing wages to keep their labor costs down.
For this assignment, you will research the following benchmark jobs in the health care industry. These jobs are found in most major metropolitan areas and most require education beyond high school.
1. Dentist (family practice/general dentistry)
2. Dental hygienist
3. Physician (family practice/general practitioner)
4. Physician's assistant
5. Registered nurse (RN)
Using online resources, determine the pay rate for those jobs in Cleveland, OH and Omaha, NE. Also find the average salary nation-wide in either 2015 or 2014. Obtain information from at least two different sources. Be sure to read the job descriptions to ensure that you are comparing the "same" job. Suggested pay rate resources include (but are not limited to):
• Salary.com
• Salary.nytimes.com
• O*Net
• Payscale.com
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Professional organizations for each profession
Using online and/or other resources, research whether there are certain disparities in the physician and dentistry professions according to ethnicity/race and/or gender. In other words, find out if there are significant differences between the nation-wide percentage of male dentists as compared to the nation-wide percentage of female dentist, etc.
Tasks:
1. Create a table showing the average pay rate for each job in Cleveland and Omaha, and the national average.
2. Does one geographic area generally pay more than the other? Regardless of the answer, explain why you think that might be. (Support your response.)
3. Did you find any disparities in the physician and dentistry professions according to ethnicity/race and/or gender? Regardless of the answer, explain why that might be. (Support your response.)
4. Identify and cite your sources of information according to APA format.
5. Make sure your responses are free of spelling and grammatical errors.