Poor oversight allows nursing home workers to plunder residents' trust funds, investigation finds

Despite an economic recession and slower compensation gains for nurses and nurse managers, nursing home administrators’ salaries rose this year at their highest rate in four years.

Administrator salaries jumped by an average of 4.8%, according to the 2009-2010 Nursing Home Salary & Benefits Report from Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service. This is the largest one-year increase since the 2006-2007 survey found a 4.6% pay rise that put administrators over the $80,000 mark. Last year, the national average salary for facilities of all bed sizes, both for-profit and nonprofit, was $85,464. This year, it is $89,606.

The annual HCS report samples information from tens of thousands of nursing home employees at thousands of facilities across the country to determine the industry standards for compensation and benefits.

“We are pleased that both total number of participants and employees increased significantly this year, making our state and county data sections even larger,” said Rosanne Zabka, director of reports for HCS.