Doctor-nurse pay gap disputed

Press, 26 August 1982, Page 13

Doctor-nurse pay gap disputed

PA Auckland Nurses are poorly paid, but not to the extent suggested by a Labour member of Parliament. Mrs Ann Hercus, says the Nurses' Society. Mrs Hercus told a social workers’ meeting in Auckland that doctors earned up to five times as much as nurses. She said she doubled that the difference should be so great in spite of the doctors’ longer training and greater education. The Nurses’ Society's national director. Mr David Wills, has replied that figures do not support Mrs Hercus’s assertions. '

"We would be the first to admit that nurses are inadequately paid but the margin is not that high." he said. “If you make a rougn comparison between positions of equal seniority, you will get a gap in favour of doctors of between 20 per cent and 100 per cent, but nothing like 500 per cent." Mr Wills said the highest salary for a doctor in a hospital was $59,509 compared with a maximum nurses’ salary of $36,855. The lowest hospital salary for a doctor was about $20,000, compared with $13,411 for a nurse.