Hospital wage gradients within U.S. urban areas

Average wages from 2,275 general hospitals in metropolitan areas across the U.S. were used to test for a wage gradient descending from hospitals in the central city through those in urbanized and finally non-urbanized areas of each county-defined metropolitan area. Significant gradients were found in MSAs of all sizes. Urbanized-area wages were 3 to 6 percent lower than those in central cities of the same metropolitan area. Non-urbanized suburban wages were 10 to 12 percent lower than those in central cities. The explanations for the gradients differ somewhat between large and small areas. For example, while the relative mix of high-wage and low-wage occupations in each hospital is a significant explanatory variable for wages in all metropolitan area sizes, the relative use of part-time workers is not significant in those metropolitan areas with fewer than 250,000 people. Relative crime in each hospital's city is highly significant in explaining relative wages only for areas with populations of more than one million.