By now, you’re probably familiar with the process of filling out your prescription, as well as the time required to make your order, and the price of the medicine.
But there’s one more little-known aspect of dispensing feminine products that you might not know about: the amount of time it takes to complete the transaction.
According to a new study, female pharmacy employees are paid about one-third less per hour for dispensing female-owned feminine products than male pharmacy employees.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University at Buffalo, which examined the retail sales of prescription medications sold in the city of Buffalo, New York.
The researchers used a survey of over 700 female employees of a private female-only pharmacy.
The survey found that women make about half the sales at a women-owned pharmacy compared to male-owned pharmacies, with about 70% of sales at the women-only outlet.
In addition, women earn an average of $1.60 less per day than men.
The study’s findings have garnered a lot of attention from the media.
“Women make up the majority of pharmacy employees, and they do make more than their male counterparts.
But it seems that the gap in pay between the genders is a bit more pronounced than we thought,” said co-author Kristine M. Schall, a PhD student in the department of pharmacy administration and finance at the University-At-Buffalo.
In order to understand the disparities in pay, the researchers looked at the number of hours each employee worked for a pharmacy.
They then used data from the Buffalo, N.Y., Police Department’s “National Pharmacy Hours Study,” which measures the hours employees spend in a particular business, from 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., every day.
The researchers found that, among pharmacy employees in Buffalo, female pharmacists were paid an average hourly rate of $9.43 in 2016, while men earned an average annual salary of $36,939.
The difference between the two genders, the study found, is largely due to a difference in the hours pharmacists work, the duration of their shifts, and other factors.
According the study, while the average female pharmacy employee works a total of 2.3 hours per day, a male pharmacy employee takes in an average 5.2 hours per workday.
“The pay gap is quite striking,” said study co-researcher Erin E. Zajac, a pharmacy professor at the university.
“If you look at the salary data, the average male and female pharmacist work the same hours, and their pay is similar.
So it really suggests that this is not a pay gap, it’s a salary gap.”
According to the study’s methodology, the pay gap could be due to gender differences in hours worked.
For instance, the gender pay gap for female pharmacy staff could be because female employees are less likely to have a full-time job and less likely than male employees to earn overtime pay.
The researchers suggest that pharmacists should be encouraged to take time off for their families and work less to increase the gender salary gap.
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