Hospitals and clinics across the Las Vegas valley are continuing to deal with staffing shortages across nearly every level of care, from doctors and nurses to critical support staff. While some progress is being made, medical professionals say the region still has a long way to go to meet the needs of its growing population.

The pay gap—or the difference in earnings between men and women—persists throughout the U.S., with full-time working women earning just 81 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2024. A recent business.com analysis of U.S. Census data shows Nevada’s full-time workforce faring better than all but Vermont, but Henderson remains a major outlier. The city had the 15th largest gap in the study, with an average female resident earning $19,645 less than her male counterpart. That’s about 2.5 times greater than Las Vegas’ $8,172 and Nevada’s $7,805, and consistent with a 2024 UNLV Lincy Institute and Brookings Mountain West study ranking it 21st. Let’s take a closer look at these trends in honor of Equal Pay Day on March 26.

Today, health care is the fastest-growing sector in the regional economy having added more than 42,000 jobs since 2016. Yet, despite this growth we only have 70 percent of our expected health care jobs. Consequently, we continue to have poor health and social outcomes and export tens of millions of our health care dollars to out-of-state providers annually.

Southern Nevada has made big strides when it comes to health care in the region, adding a medical school at UNLV and hosting two private schools for doctors. But it still has a long way to go, and a lot of money required to get there.

The Lincy Institute at UNLV reports that Nevada is still missing about 30 percent of the healthcare jobs it should have. A lack of residency spots is pushing many newly trained doctors out of the state.

Using data in the Mental Health America report, Brookings Mountain West at UNLV breaks out some of the findings with a more regional emphasis in its report on the “State of Mental Health in the Mountain West.” The Brookings analysis included metrics for major depressive episodes, mental illness, substance use disorders, suicidal idiation, and unmet treatment for both adult and youth population.