Nonprofit hospital CEO, employee pay gap widens: Study

Nonprofit hospital CEO, employee pay gap widens: Study
Becker's Hospital Review; by Kelly Gooch; 8/20/25
The wage gap between CEOs and average employees at U.S. nonprofit hospitals widened from 2009 to 2023, according to a study published this month in Health Affairs. Researchers from the University of Chicago, Brown University in Providence, R.I., and Rand Corp. used IRS Form 990 and Medicare cost reports to examine data from 1,424 nonprofit hospitals. They found hospital CEOs earned about 10.2 times the average wage of hospital employees in 2009. By 2023, that ratio had risen to 12 times the average wage — a 17.6% increase. Between 2009 and 2023, average CEO pay rose by 27.5% and top executive pay by 23.1%, while the average wage for all hospital employees (executives included) rose just 9.8%. Inflation-adjusted average annual CEO pay rose from about $814,000 in 2009 to $1.04 million in 2023.
Publisher's note: What is the CEO / Employee pay gap in your organization?