Hospital Compensation Growth Falls in Line with Larger Economy

The growth in total compensation for hospital workers and all workers—which includes wages, salaries, health insurance, pension plans, 401(k) matches, and other perks—has followed a similar downward trend since the fourth quarter of 2001, according to BLS data.

Total compensation for employees cost hospitals 6% more in the fourth quarter of 2001 than it did in the fourth quarter of 2000, while total compensation costs for all workers in the larger economy was 4.2% higher in 2001, according to the BLS.

During the first three quarters of 2010, however, the growth of hospitals' total compensation costs for employees had slowed to 2.1% when compared with the first three quarters of 2009, and about 1.8% for all workers for the same three quarters.