Most assisted living providers offer fringe benefits to their employees, but those benefits and eligibility vary by region, according to the recently released “2023-2024 Assisted Living Salary & Benefits Report,” published by Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service.
A total of 961 assisted living communities participated in the study, providing data on more than 63,000 employees. Data are current as of October.
Nationally, 89.5% of the respondents said they offer paid time off to employees in the form of excused paid absences, personal days, vacation time and sick days.
Assisted living workers in the East South Central region of the country — Alabama, Keturcky, Mississippi and Tennessee — are more likely than others to receive PTO benefits, however. All survey participants from that region said they offer PTO.
At the low end, only 29.1% of assisted living workers in the New England region — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont — are likely to receive PTO benefits.
Eligibility requirements also vary by region. In the Northeast, those who do receive PTO benefits (69.6%) are most likely to begin earning them starting on day one, but only 4.9% of workers in the Pacific region — Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington — can start accumulating PTO as soon as they are employed.
The number of days off available after one year of employment is fairly consistent across all regions of the country, ranging from 17.7 days off for managers in the Pacific to 19.8 days in the New England and East South Central regions. The average number of days off offered across the country was 19.1.
Clinical employees nationally averaged 17.3 days off after the first year of employment. At the low end, employees in the Pacific averaged 16 days off. At the upper end, the East North Central region — Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin — averaged 19 days.
Vacation time for management employees, nationally, averaged 11.6 days after the first year of employment, and it averaged 9.5 days for clinical employees.
Most of the providers in the survey (85.8%) said that management employees do not receive PTO for holidays.
The 250-page report, now in its 26th year, is available for purchase on the HCS website. It covers 20 management and 30 non-management positions and is published in cooperation with LeadingAge and supported by the National Center for Assisted Living.
The publication includes data from assisted living communities, personal care homes and residential care facilities for the elderly. Data are reported according to for‑profit and not-for-profit status, revenue size, unit size, state, core-based statistical area and geographic region. Also covered are projected salary increases for this year and more.
