US Hospitals Sued over Nurse Pay

Four class-action suits regarding nurse pay have been filed against some of the biggest U.S. hospitals.

The suits claim that these hospitals “regularly discussed nurses’ wages in meetings, over the telephone and in written surveys” as they “conspired to depress wages for nurses.” And all this, amid a national nursing shortage…!

(According to the American Hospital Association, the US is currently short 170,000 nurses, and this number is expected to grow to 1 million by 2020. Despite this, wages for nurses were stagnant in 2003 and actually fell 6.4 percent in 2004.)

The suits have been filed in Chicago, Memphis, Albany and San Antonio. They “seek back compensation and legal costs totaling “hundreds of millions of dollars” under federal antitrust laws.”