Wage Pressures, Turnover Continue to Vex Senior Living CFOs

Minimum wage hikes and ever-constant turnover rates are still among the top staffing pressures for senior living leaders.

That’s according to a June CFO Hotline survey from Chicago-based special investment banking firm Ziegler. For the survey, Ziegler heard from nearly 120 senior living CFOs and financial professionals from around the U.S., roughly 70% of whom represented single-site providers. Ziegler conducted a similar survey in 2016.

About two-thirds of the most recent survey’s respondents said that minimum wage increases have had a “moderate to significant negative impact” on their organizations, an amount that’s up from the 57% reported in 2016. And those reporting moderate negative impacts increased to 46.5%, up from the 28.1% reported two years ago.

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The survey also asked the senior living leaders to estimate the turnover rate among their direct care staff. On average, the CFOs reported a turnover rate for direct care staff of about 36%, which was up from the 30% they reported in 2016. More than half (roughly 62%) of the survey’s respondents said they have used a temp agency to fill direct care worker vacancies, while about 38% said they never use a temp agency to fill those kind of openings.

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The survey also offered a window into how much of any given senior living provider’s budget goes toward staff compensation. While the survey’s respondents answered varied widely—30% to 82%—on average, they devoted about 57% of their budgets toward staff compensation, which is higher than the 55.5% average recorded in 2016.

Read the full report here.

Written by Tim Regan

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