The COVID-19 pandemic intensified hospitals' reliance on travel nurses to address staffing shortages and highlighted the gap between full-time workers' pay and lucrative temporary contracts. In the third year of the pandemic, hospitals continue to rely on travel nurses and grapple with workforce shortages for a variety of reasons. However, some organizations have reduced their reliance on travel nurses, and pay overall is lower compared to certain points of the pandemic, experts told Becker's. 

Ordinances establishing a $25 minimum hourly wage for workers at private healthcare facilities are on hold in Los Angeles and Downey, Calif., as those cities seek to verify signatures petitioning to block enactment of the measures.

U.S. market volatility erased $3.4 trillion from 401(k)s and IRAs in the first half of 2022, making for an anxious time for many workers trying to plan their retirements. 

St. Charles Health System in Bend, Ore., is asking employees to pay back roughly $2 million it says they received in overpayments, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported Aug. 12.   

An increasingly competitive marketplace for talent at U.S. hospitals and health systems and recovery from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic are affecting healthcare executive compensation, according to a survey conducted by consulting firm SullivanCotter. 

The average weekly travel nurse pay in July in the U.S. was $2,997, up 12 percent from $2,681 during the same time in 2021, according to a report from Vivian Health, a national healthcare hiring marketplace. 

Providence healthcare workers in Northern California said they have lost hundreds to thousands of dollars due to payroll errors that the health system has not resolved in the contractually required 48 hours.

Employees of the now-closed Santa Cruz Valley Regional Hospital in Green Valley, Ariz., are seeking answers about pay they say they were promised but never received, the Arizona Daily Star reported Aug. 7.

There are differing views as to the future of wages and contracts for traveling nurses among healthcare executives, MedPage Today reported Aug. 4.

Following a compensation analysis, Cooperstown, N.Y.-based Bassett Healthcare Network will increase its workforce compensation by nearly $50 million. 

New York state will begin providing bonuses of up to $3,000 to eligible healthcare and mental hygiene workers using the $1.3 billion allocated for the payments in the state's fiscal year 2023 budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Aug. 3.  

The Monterey Park (Calif.) City Council approved a $25 minimum hourly wage for workers at private hospitals, integrated health systems and dialysis clinics in the city, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported Aug. 2.

The December ransomware attack against Ultimate Kronos Group, a human resources management company, hindered the ability of several health systems' to process payrolls. Some hospital employees were overpaid after the attack, and health systems are trying to recoup the funds. 

Three nurses have filed a lawsuit alleging that staffing company Maxim Healthcare Services defrauded them through a "take-it-or-leave-it" strategy that forced them to accept less pay or lose their jobs, Law360 reported Aug. 1.

A union is pushing back amid a campaign by hospitals to repeal an ordinance recently signed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti that establishes a $25 minimum hourly wage for workers at eligible privately owned healthcare facilities in the city.

The 45th annual "HCS Nursing Home Salary & Benefits Report," released July 29, has found nursing home registered nurses and nurses aides averaged a pay jump of 11 percent, McKnights Long Term Care News reported July 29. 

Median total wages for physican assistants working in cardiovacular and cardiothoracic surgery in 2021 were $140,000, making it the highest paid specialty, according to the American Academy of Physician Associates 2022 Salary Report released July 29 and shared with Becker's. 

The average salary for U.S. medical residents increased 16 percent between 2015 and 2022 but remained stagnant since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from Medscape. 

Chillicothe, Ohio-based Adena Health System plans to raise caregiver wages, including raising minimum wage to $15 an hour by the end of 2022. 

According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, workers who shifted jobs in April, May and June boosted their wages by 6.4 percent, The Wall Street Journal reported July 25.