How much is enough?
It’s a question that begs to be asked: Just how much must skilled nursing providers raise pay to appease lawmakers demanding higher wages?
Do they have a target in mind, or will each new threshold be met with a new level of disdain, cutting commentary that dismisses genuine efforts to improve pay and benefits, and a push for even more money?
The truth is, providers have raised the bar continuously since COVID’s start, and we got the latest proof this week. Pay for certified nursing assistants working in continuing care retirement communities saw an average raise of 5% in 2024, besting the 2023 rate of inflation at 3.4%.
CNAs now can expect to make $19.81 per hour on average in CCRCs, the Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service found in its annual compilation of salary data.
The latest bump is in line with what the federal government offered its own workers for 2024 (5.2%). But when viewed through the lens of recent history, nursing homes, at least those linked with CCRCs, actually are doing better than the government. (The latest stand-alone nursing home data won’t be out until later this summer.)
The Biden Administration gave government employees a 4.6% raise in 2023 and just 2.7% in 2022, and the president’s proposed 2025 budget reverts to a much lower 2% bump. CCRC owners and operators, meanwhile, doled out average increases to nursing staff (CNAs, LPNs and RNs) of 7.04% last year and 8.87% the year before that.
While I’m all for well-paying, safe and rewarding jobs, it’s unfair that providers who’ve committed to upward rates over a period of years are still being raked over the coals by leaders including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).
Yes, there are some nursing home laggards out there, and some states and regions certainly outperform others on pay. But Congress would seem to have the same challenges, with some members happy to limit pay increases for the federal workforce — well known to make significantly less than their privately employed peers.
Do those lawmakers feel even slightly hypocritical about how they pay their (well, America’s) civilian employees when they bash private nursing home owners and nonprofits for making real progress in a historically underpaid setting? Maybe not. Maybe they’re just trying to be fiscally responsible. Maybe their ability to push through higher pay rates is affected by the conditions in which they’re operating.
Still, I hope those lawmakers targeting nursing homes took this jab to heart. “The federal government has a history of chronic underinvestment in its most valuable asset: the federal workforce.”
That came from a pair of lawmakers who earlier this year introduced legislation to press through a 7.4% federal pay raise for 2025. In a press release publicizing their efforts (the likes of which have failed in the last three sessions), Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) noted that federal workers’ pay satisfaction has declined from 67% to 57% over the last three years.
“A lack of competitive pay hurts the recruitment, retention, and quality of the civil service,” they added.
That’s a refrain that will sound all-too-familiar to anyone working in long-term care.
Kimberly Marselas is senior editor of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.
Opinions expressed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News columns are not necessarily those of McKnight’s.
