Hospital staff shortage: the role of the competitiveness of pay of different groups of nursing staff on staff shortage

Shortages of nursing staff in OECD countries have been a preoccupation for policy makers. Shortages of staff may be the consequence of uncompetitive pay. In the private sector, employers in different regions can offer different pay rates to reflect local amenities and cost of living. Hospitals in the UK however cannot set the pay for their employees, and as a result they might therefore incur staff shortages. Moreover, occupational groups do not operate in isolation. Shortages of staff may also be the consequence of the competitiveness of pay of an alternative group of staff. This is investigated using two distinct groups of nursing staff: assistant nurses (ANs) and registered nurses (RNs) working in English hospitals in 2003–2005 using national-level data sets. We find that an increase by 10% of the pay competitiveness of RNs decreases the shortage of both the RNs and of ANs by 0.6% and 0.4%, respectively.