The following health systems revealed plans in May about offering sign-on bonuses or pandemic appreciation bonuses for workers:

Compensation for most physicians has remained steady, despite financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic such as lower patient volumes, caps on elective procedures and increased medical practice closures, according to data released May 26 from the Medical Group Management Association.   

Piedmont is offering nurses up to $30,000 in sign-on bonuses to work at the Atlanta-based health system.

Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine is giving a $1,500 bonus to faculty and staff in gratitude for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said May 26.

It would take 42 additional days of work for women to earn what men did last year, meaning the earnings gap remained unchanged in 2020, according to analysis from Pew Research Center.

Northern Light Health will increase its minimum starting pay rate to $15 an hour to help retain and attract workers, the Brewer, Maine-based health system said May 24.  

Men in the tech industry were offered higher salaries than women for the same job title at the same company 59 percent of the time in 2020, down from 65 percent in 2019, according to a report released May 19 by tech job matching company Hired.

Huntsville (Ala.) Hospital Health System said it's giving eligible full-time employees a $1,000 bonus as an expression of gratitude for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Albuquerque (N.M.) is offering new full-time registered nurses $15,000 sign-on bonuses if they sign a two-year work commitment, the hospital said in an announcement about its hiring event May 19.

Baylor Scott & White Health said it's giving a $500 bonus to employees in gratitude for their work the last 14 months during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several healthcare companies, including King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services, Walgreens and Labcorp, were called out in a new report that highlights the 100 S&P 500 companies with the lowest median worker wages in 2020.

Baptist Health System in San Antonio is offering new nurses, as well as patient care and lab associates, up to $20,000 sign-on bonuses, the health system said in an announcement about its upcoming hiring event May 11.

Service Employees International Union, which represents more than 1 million healthcare workers, is taking aim at Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare for what it calls runaway executive competition in an advertising blitz.

Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health has dropped a policy that linked some physician bonuses to patient referrals to its fundraising office, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.  

Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System, both based in Baltimore, are boosting their minimum wage to $15 per hour, they said May 6.

Employees at Big South Fork Medical Center in Oneida, Tenn., say the hospital is still behind on paying them and relying more on staffing agency workers amid frustrations over the payroll issue, according to The Independent Herald.

Physicians practicing orthopedics have the highest average incentive bonus among specialties, according to Medscape's "Physician Compensation Report 2021."

Male physicians continue to earn more money than female physicians in 2021 — 27 percent more in primary care and 33 percent more in specialty care, to be precise. 

The CEOs of Centene, HCA Healthcare and AbbVie are among the highest-paid chief executives of the largest U.S. companies, according to Equilar.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, primary care physicians earned an average annual compensation of $242,000 and specialists earned an average of $344,000 — a decrease of $1,000 and $2,000, respectively, compared to before the public health crisis hit.