Healthcare Essential Workers Who Worked Through the Pandemic, Received the Least Pay Increase

Healthcare's essential workers' pay increased just 1.5% in 2021, as compared to 6.9% nationally.

Despite shouldering many of the responsibilities of the COVID-19 pandemic, the average wage for healthcare workers in the U.S. is behind those in other industries, research out of the University of Indiana shows.

Compared to 2019, healthcare wages increased by 5% versus the national average of 6.7% in 2020. In 2021, the increase was 1.5% versus 6.9% nationally.

Results of the study found that healthcare employment declined in mid-2020 to 21.1 million jobs, with variations across different organizations during the first year of the pandemic. Those that saw the largest decline were dental offices (10%) and skilled nursing facilities (8.4%).

Thuy Nguyen, senior author of the study, noted that there were "substantial" employment declines at nursing homes—which she said were expected, considering those employees may experience higher levels of frustration and burnout due to the pandemic.

"While there has been extensive media coverage of the considerable employment declines in the healthcare sector, evidence from complete national employment and wages was scarce," Kosali Simon, co-author of the study and professor at IU Bloomington's O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said. "These findings provide a data-driven picture of employment levels by various healthcare settings and can help guide decision-making not only around the current healthcare shortage but also during a future crisis."

Looking at both industry- and county-level data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the research team reviewed healthcare industry jobs statistics from 2020 through the first six months of 2021. The team then examined whether the number of healthcare jobs in a county is reflected in how hard that county was hit by COVID-19 cases.

Research also considered how much of a worker shortage the counties faced before the pandemic.

"While federal programs provided financial assistance to hospitals and institutions, it is important to focus on the effect of the pandemic on healthcare employment levels and wages," Christopher Whaley, another co-author of the study, said in a statement. "Especially if we want to prevent such shortages in the future."