A study to detect the presence of racial/ethnic pay disparities among registered nurses (rns) in U.S. hospitals

or this research study, a regression decomposition of hospital RN salaries was conducted to detect the presence of racial/ethnic pay disparities for hospital RNs working in the most populous metropolitan statistical areas in the United States. Regression decomposition compares two groups and disaggregates the total economic value of human capital and job characteristics into constituent direct and indirect monetary worth. Differences in the value of the same characteristic by various racial/ethnic groups have been commonly used as a measure of discrimination in earnings. The data for this analysis were drawn from the 2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses (NSSRN), a federally funded survey of RNs which was conducted every four years from 1977 through 2008. The analysis found that both Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino hospital RNs, who are underrepresented in nursing compared to their presence in the population, earned less than non-Hispanic White hospital RNs, while Asian/Pacific Islander hospital RNs earned more than non-Hispanic Whites. Specifically, Hispanic/Latino RNs earned...