Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-2012
Abstract
Nursing shortages are common despite the fact that nurses earn far higher wages than other college-educated women. Our analysis addresses the puzzle of "high" nursing wages. Employee data from the Current Population Survey are matched with detailed job descriptors from the Occupational Information Network. Nursing requires high levels of compensable skills and demanding working conditions. Standard log wage regression estimates indicate nursing wage advantages of about 40%. Accounting for job attributes reduces estimates to roughly 20%. Rather than transforming ordinary least squares log gaps to percentages, alternative methods measuring Mincerian gaps produce estimates of 15% or less. We conclude that nurses receive compensation that is much closer to opportunity costs than that seen in standard analyses, narrowing the shortage puzzle. Supply constraints in nurse licensing can produce wages above long-run opportunity costs but that are too low to clear short-run labor markets during periods of growing demand. The analysis provides broader implications for the conduct of wage analyses.
Identifier
10.4284/0038-4038-78.4.1096
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Repository Citation
Hirsch, B.T., & Schumacher, E.J. (2012). Underpaid or overpaid? Wage analysis for nurses using job and worker attributes. Southern Economic Journal, 78(4), 1096-1119. doi: 10.4284/0038-4038-78.4.1096
Publication Information
Southern Economic Journal