INTRODUCTION:

Income disparities among professionals employed in the health job market are discrepant in Brazil, even when comparing professionals with the same socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, but with complete higher education in different areas of the health sector.

OBJECTIVE:

The objective of this article is to analyze the differentials in earnings from work for those allocated in the health sector as a function of having completed higher education in different undergraduate courses in the health area.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Data from the Annual Social Information Report - RAIS of the Social Security and Employment Secretariat of the Ministry of Economy of Brazil - MEB for the years 2010 and 2017 are used. In addition, quantile regressions are used to measure income differentials in the quantiles of the conditional distribution of wages.

RESULTS:

The results show that physicians' earnings are much higher than that of other health professionals in all quantiles of earnings, with the wage/hour worked by these professionals far exceeding 100%, as disparities still rise in the upper tail of labor income. In addition, attributes such as experience and age had positive effects on income.

CONCLUSIONS:

This article highlights the existence of great income inequality among workers in the same area and with a similar level of education. That said, it is necessary to strengthen the other areas of health, through the representation of class councils and the establishment of fair wage floors, in order to improve the income of all employed people, reducing existing inequalities in the sector.