Companies are facing heightened pressure to hire and promote employees from underrepresented groups. As a result, more activist investors are pushing for diversity targets to be tied to executive compensation, and some experts told The New York Times that financial incentives could increase accountability for senior leaders. 

Internal medicine physicians saw the greatest average signing bonus offered to recruits this year among the five most requested medical specialties, according to Merritt Hawkins' 2020 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives.  

Orthopedic surgeons and radiologists saw the greatest year-over-year gains to base salaries offered to recruits, according to Merritt Hawkins' 2020 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives. 

Employees at Boulder (Colo.) Community Health will take a 10 percent pay cut or have their hours cut for the next six months, the organization announced July 7.  Executives at the organization will see their pay cut 20 percent.

Hospital and health system workers from across the U.S. have been battling COVID-19 from the front lines during the pandemic. To recognize these employees, organizations have offered bonus payments over the last three months.

Lewisburg, Pa.-based Evangelical Community Hospital plans to delay pay increases and not fill 15 open positions to help offset losses attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Daily Item.

There is a way to curb the so-called "motherhood penalty," in which women’s earnings fall after having children, according to new research out of the University of Southern California.

Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Erlanger Health System in August will restore the salaries of its CEO and other leaders that were reduced to offset losses prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

To help offset revenue losses attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospitals have implemented pay cuts for staff, including physicians.

Martha's Vineyard Hospital in Oak Bluffs, Mass., will cut CEO pay and freeze wages of nearly all employees to address financial damage from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Vineyard Gazette.

Salary history bans limit employers' ability to ask applicants about past earnings, and effectively halt residual pay gaps from persisting, which is shown to benefit all applicants — but women and African Americans, especially. 

Aurora, Colo.-based UCHealth will not give raises to employees this year amid financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Denver Post.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance that implements a change in the 2017 tax overhaul that imposed a 21 percent excise tax on compensation paid to executives at some nonprofit organizations, according to Bloomberg Tax.

ThedaCare physicians and advanced practice clinicians will take a 10 percent pay cut to help reduce the Appleton, Wis.-based health system's financial hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization confirmed to The Post-Crescent.

In a second round of cuts, Renton, Wash.-based Providence plans to reduce the salaries of 1,200 high-paid medical providers to help offset losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to OregonLive.

ThedaCare President and CEO Imran Andrabi, MD, will take a 50 percent pay reduction, and other members of the executive team will take a 40 percent cut to help stabilize the Appleton, Wis.-based health system's finances, according to the Appleton Post-Crescent. 

King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services' executives and other members of its senior management team are taking salary reductions and donating their pay to a fund that provides financial support to the company's employees. 

Median pay for CEOs of the biggest U.S. companies hit a new record of $13.1 million in 2019, and the leaders of 11 healthcare companies earned $21 million or more last year, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal. 

University Hospitals, based in Cleveland, said it will temporarily cut pay for all physicians and clinical leaders in the organization to help offset losses driven by the pandemic.

Primary care physician compensation climbed an average of 2.6 percent from 2018 to 2019, and compensation for most physician specialties also increased, according to data from the Medical Group Management Association.