An analysis of racial/ethnic pay disparities among hospital nurses in New York City.

Despite growing concern over cultural competence and diversity in the registered nursing (RN) workforce, minority RNs working in hospitals in New York City who were surveyed in 2007 earned less on average than their non-Hispanic White counterparts. Regression decomposition was applied to these data to investigate how much of the differential could be attributed to different characteristics of different racial/ethnic groups and how much could be attributed to differential valuation of characteristics between racial/ethnic groups. The earnings differential between Black/African American and non-Hispanic White RNs was about equally due to different characteristics and differential valuation of characteristics, but the earnings differentials between Hispanic/Latino RNs and non-Hispanic White RNs and between Asian/Pacific Islander RNs and non-Hispanic White RNs were about two-thirds due to different characteristics and one-third due to differential valuation of their characteristics. In particular, years of nursing experience did not translate into the same earnings advantages for minority RNs.