Can human capital theory explain why nurses are so poorly paid?
This paper uses Australian Census data to examine the earnings of femaleprofessionals. Comparisons are made between Registered Nurses (RNs),Teachers, Social Professionals, Health Professionals and BusinessProfessionals. Wage decompositions show that RNs earn significantly less thanother female Profe...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
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Curtin University of Technology
2000
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/38518 |
| _version_ | 1848755342101446656 |
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| author | Nowak, Margaret Preston, Alison |
| author_facet | Nowak, Margaret Preston, Alison |
| author_sort | Nowak, Margaret |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This paper uses Australian Census data to examine the earnings of femaleprofessionals. Comparisons are made between Registered Nurses (RNs),Teachers, Social Professionals, Health Professionals and BusinessProfessionals. Wage decompositions show that RNs earn significantly less thanother female Professionals and that the observed differentials cannot beexplained by differences in human capital endowments. The evidence presentedis strongly suggestive of monopsonist or oligopsonist power in the setting ofnurse wages ? with a manifestation being persistent labour marketdisequilibrium. Changing the relative reward structure for nurses may helpaddress the on-going nursing ?shortage? in Australia, although further researchin this area is called for. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:54:47Z |
| format | Working Paper |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-38518 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:54:47Z |
| publishDate | 2000 |
| publisher | Curtin University of Technology |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-385182017-01-30T14:22:25Z Can human capital theory explain why nurses are so poorly paid? Nowak, Margaret Preston, Alison This paper uses Australian Census data to examine the earnings of femaleprofessionals. Comparisons are made between Registered Nurses (RNs),Teachers, Social Professionals, Health Professionals and BusinessProfessionals. Wage decompositions show that RNs earn significantly less thanother female Professionals and that the observed differentials cannot beexplained by differences in human capital endowments. The evidence presentedis strongly suggestive of monopsonist or oligopsonist power in the setting ofnurse wages ? with a manifestation being persistent labour marketdisequilibrium. Changing the relative reward structure for nurses may helpaddress the on-going nursing ?shortage? in Australia, although further researchin this area is called for. 2000 Working Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/38518 Curtin University of Technology fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Nowak, Margaret Preston, Alison Can human capital theory explain why nurses are so poorly paid? |
| title | Can human capital theory explain why nurses are so poorly paid? |
| title_full | Can human capital theory explain why nurses are so poorly paid? |
| title_fullStr | Can human capital theory explain why nurses are so poorly paid? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Can human capital theory explain why nurses are so poorly paid? |
| title_short | Can human capital theory explain why nurses are so poorly paid? |
| title_sort | can human capital theory explain why nurses are so poorly paid? |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/38518 |