CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SullivanCotter, the nation’s leading independent consulting firm in the assessment and development of total rewards programs, workforce solutions, and data products for health care and not-for-profits, has released the latest benchmarks from both its 2024 Health Care Staff Compensation Survey and 2024 Registered Nursing Compensation Survey.
Collectively, these surveys report data from more than 2,400 organizations on approximately 2.2 million nurses and other clinical and non-clinical employees – representing the largest and most comprehensive health care staff compensation resource for hospitals and health systems.
Health care organizations continue to face unprecedented clinical workforce shortages. The registered nurse (RN) workforce has been hit particularly hard due to post-pandemic burnout, unfavorable working conditions, and an insufficient pipeline of future clinicians. As critical staffing issues persist, organizations are looking for better ways to recruit and retain RNs in a competitive talent market.
Although median base pay for RNs is up nationally by 3.0% according to SullivanCotter’s Health Care Staff Compensation Survey, there are variations between urban, rural, and major metro areas within each region that make it necessary for organizations to dive deeper into the data when evaluating market rates.
Differences in RN Base Pay by Location
With local labor markets being a major factor in many recruitments, it is important to understand the unique nuances of each organization’s geography. Growth in median base hourly rates for RNs is highest in the Northeast (4.8%) and North Central (4.6%) regions, dipping more than a percentage point in the West (3.5%) and Southeast (3.3%). The South Central states showed no year-over-year growth likely due to the 2023 survey results reporting the highest increases of any region.
Drilling down even further into greater metro areas reveals variation as well. When compared to the broader workforce, RN base pay has a higher geographic differential to national rates across six major metro areas. In New York City, base pay is 39% above the national median for RNs and 23% above the national median for all health care staff. This is similar for Boston at 35% and 18%, respectively. These findings indicate that using a single geographic factor for comparing national rates across the workforce in major metro areas is less effective than multiple geographic factors based on job type.
Tracking Changes in 2024
SullivanCotter’s new Registered Nursing Compensation Survey tracks trends in RN compensation on a six-month cadence. Due to external market pressures and evolving workforce trends, many organizations are assessing changes in pay, hot jobs, and movement by specialty more than once per year. The 2024 report, which includes six-month percentage change data from January - July 2024, shows that staff RNs involved in direct patient care saw a median increase in base pay of 2.0%. This is slightly less (1.4%) for those in indirect patient care. Both, however, are on track for annual increases of 3%-4% as 2024 comes to a close.
This survey also highlights which specialties have experienced the greatest base pay increases through July 2024. These include Critical Care, Obstetrics, Forensics, Emergency Medicine and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine.
RN Pay Structures and Experience Pay
This new survey also provides insight into RN base pay by level and experience. Given the increasing prevalence of unionization, understanding the difference between step structures and more traditional pay structures is important to designing an effective compensation program.
Step structures are often leveraged in environments that have an increased presence of unions. Median base pay is higher nationally than in organizations without these structures, and the difference in pay from entry into the field to the final step is greater. The national median for step 1 is $42.49, while the median for less than 3 years of experience is $40.12 per hour. Advancement within a pay range also indicates higher year-over-year annual increases in step structures than traditional structures.
Considerations for 2025 and Beyond
External health care market forces continue to change how organizations are responding both strategically and operationally to recent RN workforce challenges. While pay decisions are nuanced and require a customized approach – especially based on the specific market in which each organization operates – there are several important planning considerations to take into account:
- While understanding national and regional changes in base hourly rates is important, leveraging local market data and pay differentials within major metro areas can assist in making difficult pay decisions and bolstering your competitive strategy.
- Reviewing year-over-year changes may no longer be enough when evaluating the competitiveness of base pay. With RNs often being one of the largest groups on payroll, analyzing market rates every six months will allow for more timely tracking and decision-making – especially for key nursing specialties and setting designations.
- Market movement for RNs continues to outpace that of the broader health care staff workforce. As a result, RNs often require more advanced compensation solutions to carve their workforce out as a priority and help support a more competitive recruitment, retention, and engagement strategy.
- With limited budget availability, evaluating nursing structure components such as clinical reporting relationships, spans of control, and organizational levels may help to improve productivity.
For more information on SullivanCotter’s surveys, please visit our website at http://www.sullivancotter.com or contact us via email or by phone at 888.739.7039.
Note to media: Additional data and interviews are available on request.
About SullivanCotter
SullivanCotter partners with health care and other not-for-profit organizations to understand what drives performance and improves outcomes through the development and implementation of integrated workforce strategies. Using our time-tested methodologies and industry-leading research and information, we provide data-driven insights, expertise, and data products to help organizations align business strategy and performance objectives–enabling our clients to deliver on their mission, vision, and values.
