Women's Rights Employment Law Blog

In the classic American class society, the people down the hierarchy who physically serve the unwell are the ones least looked after. Nurses could be some of the biggest victims of this mentality, as their profession is mired with lack of respect, heavy workloads and low wages.

According to Institute for Women's Policy Research, wages for nurses stagnated in 2003 and then fell 6.4 percent in 2004, leading to a decline in nurses working at hospitals. Some of the key findings of this report include the following blatant indifference to workers’ deserved needs:

* Of 49 recent analyses of the nurse workforce, only 11 proposed increasing wages in order to attract more nurses.
*A report from the US Government Accountability Office cited "inadequate staffing, heavy workloads, the increased use of overtime, a lack of sufficient support staff, and the adequacy of wages" as key factors of nurse shortage.
*The link between wages and the number of workers seeking jobs--which most economists view as the key driver in labor markets--is too often overlooked when it comes to nurses.
*The quality of patient care suffers when cost-cutting staffing practices reduce nurse/patient ratios.
*Over the late 1990s and into 2000, nurses pay did not increase at all, although some hospitals had already begun worrying a nurse shortage in 1997.
*Instead of competing for nurses by increasing pay, hospitals often turn to a combination of overworking (through mandatory overtime), contingent workers, understaffing, and one time hiring bonuses to meet staffing needs.

Last week itself, four class action lawsuits have been filed against 20 of the biggest US hospitals, including no.1 HCA Inc and US Catholic Hospital System.

Nurses backed by Service Employees International Union, the country’s biggest health care union claimed that the hospitals had conspired to depress wages for nurses amid a national shortage. The claim says that hospitals discuss nurses’ wages over meetings via telephone and through written surveys, in order to coordinate and suppress pay.

The suits, filed in federal courts in Chicago; Memphis, Tennessee; Albany, New York; and San Antonio, Texas, seek back compensation and legal costs totaling "hundreds of millions of dollars" under federal antitrust laws.

As for the HCA, it has behaved predictably. Jeff Prescott, a spokesperson for HCA said, “This is one of four frivolous money-wasting lawsuits apparently generated by a union and a law firm designed to create publicity in markets where unions are trying to get membership,” said.