Nurses alleging that hospitals in Chicago, Memphis, San Antonio, and Albany have conspired to fix their wages have filed a class-action lawsuit in U.S. federal court against multiple hospitals in those cities, reports The New York Times. The plaintiffs’ attorney, Daniel A. Small, contends that the wage-fixing has resulted in an annual loss to each nurse of $14,000 in Memphis, $6,200 in Albany, $5,400 in Chicago, and $1,300 in San Antonio. In violation of antitrust laws, hospitals shared information about the salaries they were paying RNs and agreed to put a cap on them, the lawsuit alleges. Small said his investigation is ongoing and that he may file similar suits in other cities. The hospitals named in the suit claim that the charges are without merit. A spokeswoman for the Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation in Memphis, one of the hospital chains named, told the Times, "We use industry-standard, legal practices to adjust salaries. Our salaries are market-based, and we use many methods to determine fair, competitive, compensation packages."
