Healthcare Wages Rise, Highest Increases at Professional Level

WageWatch, Inc.,(http://www.WageWatch.com) the leading online compensation and benefits survey company, announced today that analysis of its 2006 Oregon Hospital/Healthcare Compensation Survey shows wages increasing by 3.6% over 2005 wages, with the highest increases in professional, non-management jobs.

Scottsdale, AZ (PRWEB) July 25, 2006 -- WageWatch, Inc.,(http://www.WageWatch.com) the leading online compensation and benefits survey company, announced today that analysis of its 2006 Oregon Hospital/Healthcare Compensation Survey shows wages increasing by 3.6% over 2005 wages, with the highest increases in professional, non-management jobs.

The survey collected data for 204 jobs in both 2005 and 2006 from 45 hospitals and clinics throughout Oregon. Approximately 40,000 employees’ wages and salaries are represented in the survey both years.

“It is most interesting, though not completely unexpected, that compensation levels for the professional-level healthcare employee increased by 4.7%, but the average wage for a healthcare support person increased by only 1.3%," said Margaret Dyekman, President and COO of WageWatch. Jobs such as technicians, therapists, LPNs, RNs, and case managers are considered professional-level jobs, while aides, medical records clerks, receptionists, housekeepers, transporters, and unit secretaries are classified as healthcare support jobs.

“Employees with a college degree or formal two-year training in Oregon healthcare organizations fared much better in terms wage growth,” continued Dyekman.

Manager, supervisor and director pay rose by 3.2%. Employee assistance program counselors, paramedics, medical librarians, vascular technologists, and physicists realized some of the largest increases in pay from 2005 to 2006, all in excess of 10%. “Of the 204 jobs for which we report data, very few decreased by more than 5%. When we see a decrease in average pay, it’s usually a high turnover job or a job in which longer-term employees move up and are replaced with new employees with less experience and therefore lower pay,” Dyekman adds.

WageWatch’s Hospital/Healthcare Compensation Survey is endorsed by the Oregon Association of Hospital and Health Systems and supplemented with an employee benefits survey. For additional information, contact Jim Crews, 480-657-6504.

ABOUT WAGE WATCH
WageWatch (www.WageWatch.com),the leading Web-based source for compensation and benefits data, provides instantly accessible industry wage, salary and benefits data, delivered to any Internet-enabled device. Using a patent-pending technology, WageWatch surveys industries and provides companies with the data they need to make their compensation and benefits decisions. As a pure information provider, WageWatch gives its customers the ability to see what their competitors are paying and position themselves in their markets.

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