Workers in concentrated labor markets, where one hospital may supply most of an area's jobs, consistently receive lower wages: Registered nurses could earn up to $6,000 less per year than the national average, new research shows.
Employers in concentrated markets can get away with paying employees less because local competition is minimal, according to UCLA's Anderson Review. Affected workers often have no choice but to accept lower pay, as their skills are less transferrable to other industries, researchers said.
Researchers from the management schools at Los Angeles-based at UCLA and Cambridge, Mass.-based MIT, along with job market analytics company Burning Glass Technologies, assembled occupational mobility data from more than 16 million U.S. workers' resumes over 17 years, according to their Aug. 19 working research paper "Employer Concentration and Outside Options."
The researchers listed the 25 occupations with the most workers who experienced a wage loss of at least 2 percent in 2019. That loss is attributed to employer concentration, compounded by a lack of mobility within the profession, researchers said.
Twelve of the 25 jobs listed were healthcare roles:
- Registered nurses
- Nursing assistants
- Pharmacy technicians
- Pharmacists
- Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses
- Medical assistants
- Emergency medical technicians and paramedics
- Radiologic technologists
- Medical and clinical laboratory technologists
- Phlebotomists
- Nurse practitioners
- Respiratory therapists