New study finds unionized health care workers earned better pay and benefits - Medical Xpress

Unionized wellness attraction workers earned amended wage and received amended non-cash benefits, with small quality successful their enactment hours erstwhile compared to non-unionized workers, according to a caller study, "Trends successful Labor Unionization Among US Health Care Workers, 2009-2021," published connected December 27, 2022 successful JAMA.

"This survey is the archetypal to systemically analyse the scenery of labour unionization among the US wellness attraction workforce and its associated economic effects," said elder writer Xiaojuan Li, Ph.D., Instructor successful the Department of Population Medicine astatine Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute.

Labor unionization efforts person resurged successful the US, and union membership has been shown to amended idiosyncratic conditions successful immoderate industries. However, small is known astir labour unionization and its economical effects among wellness attraction workers. It remains unclear however labour unionization successful wellness attraction has changed implicit the years and what benefits, if any, wellness attraction workers summation from unionizing.

To span this gap, the survey squad examined the prevalence of labour unionization among wellness attraction workers and its associations with worker pay, non-cash benefits, and enactment hours crossed the wellness attraction workforce successful the United States. The squad studied wellness attraction workers who participated successful the US Census Bureau Current Population Survey and Annual Social and Economic Supplement betwixt 2009 and 2021.

This nationally representative, population-based household survey allowed for a illustration of implicit 14,000 self-identified wellness attraction workers, including physicians and dentists, precocious practitioners, nurses, therapists, and technicians and enactment staff.

Study researchers recovered that labour unionization rates were low, astatine an wide prevalence of 13.2%, with nary important alteration from 2009 done 2021. Labor unionization was associated with amended wage and amended benefits for health attraction workers.

Unionized workers reported earning $123 much per week than nonunionized workers, receiving amended wellness security from their leader (both successful presumption of employer's publication and the benignant of security plan), and higher accidental of having a pension oregon different retirement benefits astatine work. However, compared with nonunionized, unionized workers reported somewhat much play work hours.

"The associated benefits of unionization are striking but not surprising," said Ahmed Ahmed, fourth-year medical student astatine Harvard Medical School and archetypal writer of the study. "Unions collectively bargain for their members, which appears to amended some worker compensation and wage gaps betwixt workers."

"Future causal investigation of the relationships, however, is needed," said Dr. Li. "And fixed the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic connected the health care workforce, investigating whether unionizing could assistance mitigate burnout, volition beryllium important."

Provided by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute