The committee approved the bill, proposed by Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez (D), by a vote of 11-6. Under the proposed law, hospitals and integrated health systems would submit reports on all executives whose total annual pay exceeds $250,000 to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.
Wages and salary, perks and benefits, bonuses, stock, options and any pay the executives receive for serving on boards outside of the hospital company would be subject to reporting, according to California Healthline.
Many hospitals, but not all, are already required to report some of this pay information in their tax filings.
The law would also require hospitals and affiliated medical groups with at least 100 employees to provide compensation information on non-executive workers by job type, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation.
Supporters of the bill include labor union SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, gay and transgender advocates and Health Access, a consumer advocacy group.
Opponents of the bill argued it is redundant because information on top executives’ compensation is already available to the public. “We support transparency; we have no issue with that,” Jan Emerson-Shea, a spokeswoman with the California Hospital Association, told California Healthline. “But this bill is very duplicative. We don’t know the public policy purpose of it.”
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