Gridlock in negotiations with the Michigan Nurses Association (MNA) at Ironwood has occurred due to the MNA’s unwillingness to move to a more fair and flexible “market-based” wage structure that rewards all nurses, rather than a select few who have a longer tenure.
The outdated “step schedule” the MNA insists on handcuffs Aspirus, preventing a responsive approach to provide a competitive wage to attract new talent, retain current nurses and operate with flexibility in a volatile rural health care environment. Surprisingly, MNA negotiators want to maintain their rigid structure, even though Aspirus has proposed an overall immediate wage increase greater than the wage increase sought by the union.
The MNA has maintained that they would like to keep the inflexible step schedule in place. A step schedule is a systematic pay model that ties salary progression to defined “steps” based on years of service, education, and experience rather than solely on performance or negotiation. A nurse will take steps up the wage scale for every year they work within the organization. The system does not allow for rewarding exceptional nurses who show high performance, outstanding care and bring forward innovative ideas. The lack of merit-based incentives makes it hard to retain younger nurses who are high performers and recruit new nurses to our community because they will start at a lower “step.” The system simply rewards seniority over skill.
The market-based wage structure is utilized across Aspirus Health except for in the Upper Peninsula. We have made proposals that would institute this structure because it rewards all nurses based on their performance and will enhance our ability to recruit and retain nurses. A market-based wage structure is a compensation model where pay is determined primarily by current market conditions, or what other hospitals and health care organizations are paying for similar nursing roles in the region, rather than by years of service or rigid pay steps. This structure allows Aspirus to remain competitive, flexible and responsive to the volatile and unique market dynamics of rural health care in the U.P.
Over the past five years, the market-based wage proposal we are currently offering would have provided increases that dramatically outperform the MNA’s inflexible step schedule:
Clearly, the market-based wage structure is fair in how it rewards high performing nurses and provides flexibility to recruit new talent and respond to changes inthe competitive market.
It is worth noting that in each year of our proposed contract, registered nurses would be guaranteed a wage increase.