Salary compression of nursing managers.

An American Hospital Association survey has shown that rapid escalation of staff nurse salaries and benefits, in the wake of local and national shortages, has pushed clinical wage structures beyond those that determine the salaries of nurse managers and administrators. This leads to difficulty both in recruitment and retention of these key personnel. In this hospital, attrition of nurse managers into clinical positions has ceased. Their approach makes nurse managers eligible for differentials in addition to a modest economic incentive for assumption of managerial responsibilities.