How are the pay scale and patient load decided for the various kinds of nurses (RN, LVN, LPN, etc.)?

In my facility, the lowest paid nursing home in the region, starting pay for an LPN is 16/hr. RN is 21/hr. We do 98% identical work. It seems unfair. This is regardless of associates/bachelors, any certifications. Usually, in nursing homes, the patient ratio is quite high, 20-40+ patients per nurse regardless of LPN/RN. I'm not sure how it works in the hospital for LPNs, but a local hospital pays 42.50/hr for RNs (associate degree- if you're a bachelors you get a couple grand extra a year) Keep in mind I am in the suburbs of NYC so the pay is high. I know that in this hospital, the RN gets 5 patients max. I also know that other hospitals sometimes pile on with 9 or 10 patients each. (speaking about a med/surg floor) My mom is an associate degree nurse who works for the Feds... They pay extra for every little certification you pile on, and pay 10-15k more for a bachelors degree. In her position, the LPN has just as many patients as her, but at the end of the day, she's "responsible" for their care and does any and all charting on the patients that the LPN works with. That seems crazy to me, but that's typically how the hierarchy works. Each type of facility is so so different- it makes it really difficult to discuss.

The starting wage at my hospital for new RN's is 30/hr. I think. It could be slightly more but that's the ballpark. We have a clinical ladder that we are encouraged to climb with a 5% pay hike with each step. It's more of a step ladder with three steps. We also get raises that are cost of living as well as ones to keep our hospital competitive with the bay area. Actually, Kaiser, who seems to like to snag up our nurses after we train them. There are no new grads at the Kaiser here. I've been at my institution for 10 years. I started out at 19/hr and am currently around 50something/hr. But I've climbed the damn ladder and hold multiple certs which also adds to the hourly.