Content area
Abstract
At present, internationally educated registered nurses (IENs) comprise approximately 5.4% of the US nursing workforce. Empirical evidence from the United Kingdom and Canada suggests that IENs face employment discrimination in their destination countries. There is, however, a paucity of literature related to the employment experiences of IENs in the US and the available literature provides inconclusive results about how IENs are treated in the US labor market. It is important to improve our understanding of employment experiences of IENs because employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender and national origin is illegal in the United States. Also, employment discrimination can lead to under-utilization of the IENs. Hence, the purpose of this study is to determine if IENs encounter income and job position inequality in the US labor market, in comparison with US educated registered nurses (USNs), controlling for human capital variables (e.g., level of education), personal variables (e.g., race) and employment variables (e.g., type of employment setting). Using a human capital framework, data from the 2004 and 2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses were analyzed.
IENs in earned 5% higher log hourly wages than USNs in 2004 and in 2008, all else equal. Oaxaca decomposition analyses revealed that in 2004 approximately 34% was due the differences in the characteristics of IENs and USNs. In 2008, however, as much a 66% of the difference in the log hourly wages was due to the difference in the characteristics of the two groups. In terms of job position, IENs worked a significantly higher percentage (3.2%) of time in direct patient care compared to USNs in 2004. But in 2008 there was no difference in the amount of time spent in direct patient care by IENs and USNs. This study improves our understanding of the labor market outcomes of IENs in the US. First, it establishes that IENs do not face a wage inequality. Second, it suggests that job positions of IEMs may not be equal to USNs. Future research needs to focus on factors that lead to higher wages of IENs in the US. Also, it is important to further study issues related to job inequality between IENs and USNs.
