On striking nurses

There are 650 nurses at Englewood Hospital, and they're striking because of a pay dispute, among other things. To strike for more money alone seems absurd in this economy, so I hope it's not just that. Sorry, I digress.

As per the Bergen Record's report in 6/9/2009:

• the nurses' union says the average salary for nurses in Englewood is $80,000.
• the hospital says the average salary for nurses in Englewood is nearly $100,000.

Both numbers are possibly right. Why? Definitions.

I would ask each side of the argument for the formula they used. It's conceivable that the union is using a median instead of a straight average. Maybe the hospital is only counting registered nurses. What about those working part-time? Are there nurses that split duty between multiple hospitals? Maybe the nurse administrators' salaries are in one of these calculations.

In any case, this information is both biased and incomplete. Without a clear definition, "Nurse's Salary" is a metric that I would never put into a report. And even if I'm not privy to the calculation, I would want to know that it would be clear and understandable by all who would need to see it.

Nurses are valuable commodities by any definition, I hope this dispute is resolved quickly.