This study explores whether public personnel systems, particularly their compensation systems, are flexible and responsive to market wages in a competitive labor market. Focusing on registered nurses, we explore whether and how the public, private nonprofit, and for-profit labor markets influence each other in determining wages. We also examine if sector plays a role in determining wages. We use American Community Survey data from 2016 and 2017 to test these expectations. Fixed effects regressions and seemingly unrelated regressions with Chow tests reveal that higher wages in the dominant for-profit sector appear to drive up wages in the other two sectors, and vice versa. The results imply that public personnel systems are not so rigid and inflexible as perceived. Rather, they are sensitive to supply and demand and offer wages responding to competition from other sectors. Moreover, public employees do not ignore competitive opportunities in alternative employment markets in the private sectors. Students of public employment should not overlook the private sectors either. The markets are distinctive but not independent.

本研究探讨了公共人事制度，尤其是他们的薪酬制度，在竞争激烈的劳动力市场中是否灵活并能响应市场工资。我们以注册护士为重点，探讨公共、私营非营利和营利性劳动力市场在确定工资方面是否以及如何相互影响。我们还研究了部门在决定工资方面是否发挥作用。我们使用 2016 年和 2017 年的美国社区调查数据来测试这些预期。固定效应回归和与 Chow 检验看似无关的回归表明，占主导地位的营利部门的工资上涨似乎会推高其他两个部门的工资，反之亦然。结果表明，公共人事制度并不像人们认为的那样僵化和僵化。相当，他们对供求敏感，并提供工资以应对来自其他部门的竞争。此外，公职人员不会忽视私营部门替代就业市场中的竞争机会。公共就业的学生也不应忽视私营部门。市场是独特的，但不是独立的。