Wages for hospital and outpatient center workers declined or stagnated from 2005 to 2015

 Wages for hospital and outpatient center workers have not kept pace with healthcare job growth, according to a report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

The report, "Organizational Restructuring in U.S. Healthcare Systems: Implications for Jobs, Wages, and Inequality," was funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation as well as the Nathan Cummings Foundation. It includes data on healthcare worker jobs and wages for the time period from 2005 to 2015.

Here are seven findings from the report.

1. During the time period studied, private sector healthcare employment increased 20 percent.

2. Demographic diversity increased within the healthcare workforce from 2005 to 2015. Positions held by black workers increased nearly 25 percent, according to the report. Positions held by Hispanics increased 57 percent, while positions held by Asian and other workers increased 48 percent. Positions held by white workers grew by only 11.5 percent during the time period.

3. Hospital jobs are growing at a slower rate than jobs in outpatient care facilities. During the time period studied, hospital jobs increased 10 percent while jobs in outpatient care facilities increased 60 percent, according to the report.

4. Jobs in outpatient facilities grew 65 percent for black workers from 2005 to 2015. The growth rate in outpatient facilities was 103 percent for Hispanic workers and 82 percent for Asian and other workers, respectively.

5. At the same time, overall median hourly wages "rose very modestly" in hospitals, according to the report. From 2005 to 2015, those wages increased by 75 cents, from $23.79 to $24.54. "This was an increase of 3.2 percent over the decade, or less than a third of a percent a year on average," the report notes.

6. In outpatient care centers, median real wages of full-time workers declined nearly 6 percent from $20.81 to $19.63 an hour, according to the report. That's a decline of $1.18 during the time period studied.

7. "The findings in this report show that the unraveling of hospital-based employment systems is associated with stagnant or declining wages for healthcare workers," the report authors concluded. "In addition, this shift is leading to greater wage inequality. In hospitals, the modest rise in real wages among healthcare professionals and the fall in wages for non-professional groups suggest that inequality has increased within hospital settings. A similar, but more modest development can be seen in outpatient care facilities. Some demographic groups are more disadvantaged than others. Substantial gender wage gaps occur in every occupational group in both hospitals and outpatient care facilities. In addition, pay penalties for working in outpatient facilities relative to hospitals are prevalent among professional workers and medical technicians."

Read more about the report's findings here.

 

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