Healthcare workers rank second among those frustrated about their industry’s pay, according to a recent analysis from USA Today Blueprint.
The research included 3 million Glassdoor reviews of 500 large employers in 25 industries to uncover which sectors have the most frustrated workers as far as wages are concerned.
Only workers in the education field are less satisfied with their pay than are workers in healthcare, according to the findings.
“This is likely one reason why education and health services have a higher-than average vacancy rate of roughly 6%, compared to about 5% across all industries, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics,” wrote Carissa Rawson, Glen Luke Flannigan and Robin Saks Frankel.
At the other end, workers in the field of pharmaceuticals/biotechnology were least likely to have complaints about the amount in their paycheck, followed by workers in food/soft beverages/alcohol/tobacco and utilities.
Help may be in sight for some healthcare workers, but optimism may be waning in California, where, in the wake of a projected $38 billion deficit, Gov. Gavin Newson (D) is reevaluating an incremental minimum wage increase to $25 an hour for workers in nursing homes, assisted living communities and other settings. He had signed it into law in October.
California has the largest number of skilled nursing facilities and assisted living communities of any state, according to SNF Data and Statista.
Overall, nursing home salaries — including those of executives — continued their upward trajectory with many facilities responding to staffing shortfalls by increasing hourly rates and offering signing bonuses, according to the industry’s largest annual salary survey released in August.
According to the results of another study, from TollFreeForwarding.com, registered nurse salaries are projected to increase over the next decade at a rate that surpasses the rate of increases for some other healthcare professions.
Meanwhile, resident assistants in assisted living communities received a 9.22% hourly rate increase in 2022, according to the 25th annual Assisted Living Salary & Benefits Report, published by Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service. Resident assistant hourly rates increased by 10.61% in 2021 and by 9.22% in 2022. As a result of continued pay increases, turnover rates for the position began to decrease in 2022. Resident assistant turnover was 68.09% in 2021 but declined in 2022 to 49.08%. Vacancy rates for resident assistants were 19.91% in 2022.
