Change in average hourly earnings

August 2025 to August 2026 · seasonally adjusted

Nursing & residential3.3%
Ambulatory care2%
Health care total1.8%
Hospitals1.4%
BLS CES gross payroll averages include overtime premiums but exclude employer benefits and irregular payments; not occupation-specific or inflation-adjusted.

Average hourly earnings for all employees in private health care reached $39.90 in August 2026, up 72 cents, or 1.8%, from a year earlier. Average weekly hours held at 33.4 in both months, according to seasonally adjusted Bureau of Labor Statistics payroll data.

The combination matters: the year-over-year increase in the industry's implied average weekly earnings came from the higher hourly average, not a longer average workweek. But the figures are industry averages. They combine occupations, seniority levels, full- and part-time payroll jobs, and different care settings; they are not a pay rate for a typical nurse, physician, technician, or aide.

Quick read

  • Health-care average hourly earnings rose from $39.18 in August 2025 to $39.90 in August 2026.
  • Average weekly hours were 33.4 in both months; multiplying the two averages yields implied weekly earnings of $1,332.66, up from $1,308.61.
  • Hourly-earnings growth differed by setting: 3.3% in nursing and residential care, 2.0% in ambulatory care, and 1.4% in hospitals.
  • These are nominal payroll averages, not inflation-adjusted worker raises or occupation-specific wages.

Higher hourly earnings, the same average week

BLS's Current Employment Statistics program reports average hourly earnings and average weekly hours from establishment payroll records. For health care as a whole, the August workweek did not change year over year. The hourly average did.

Multiplying the published averages gives an implied weekly figure of $1,332.66 in August 2026, up $24.05 from August 2025. That calculation is useful for separating the roles of hours and hourly earnings, but it is not an estimate of take-home pay.

CES earnings are gross payroll before employee deductions such as income-tax withholding, insurance, retirement contributions, and union dues. They include overtime premiums, paid holidays and vacations, employer-paid sick leave, and commissions paid at least monthly. They exclude employer-paid benefits, employer payroll taxes, irregular bonuses and commissions, retroactive payments, tips, and payments in kind. The average therefore is broader than a basic wage rate but narrower than total compensation.

The 1.8% hourly increase is also nominal. This analysis does not compare the change with consumer prices, so it does not establish whether purchasing power improved.

Care settings moved differently

Nursing and residential care had the fastest percentage increase among the three component settings in this extract. Average hourly earnings rose from $26.34 to $27.20, a 3.3% gain. Average weekly hours increased from 33.2 to 33.6.

Ambulatory care average hourly earnings rose 2.0%, from $40.62 to $41.45, while average weekly hours remained 31.7. Hospital average hourly earnings rose 1.4%, from $44.26 to $44.88, while average weekly hours edged down from 36.3 to 36.2.

Those differences describe industry payroll averages, not identical jobs across settings. A hospital's occupational mix differs from a physician office's or a nursing facility's. Changes in hiring mix can move an average even when no individual employee receives the same percentage change.

What recruiters and workers can use

For workforce teams, the data provide a broad compensation signal to compare with headcount, openings, and turnover measures. They cannot answer whether a specific role's offer is competitive. That requires occupation- and geography-specific wage evidence, shift differentials, benefits, credentials, and experience.

For workers, the series can show the direction of payroll averages in the employer's industry. It should not substitute for Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, collective-bargaining terms, or a local offer comparison.

Methodology and limitations

MedDataUSA retrieved eight seasonally adjusted CES series: average hourly earnings and average weekly hours for health care, ambulatory health-care services, hospitals, and nursing and residential care facilities. We compared August 2025 with August 2026 because those measures were available through August in the retrieved October 2 release vintage.

Implied weekly earnings equal average hourly earnings multiplied by average weekly hours. The two averages are not matched individual-worker observations, and the product is not take-home pay. CES counts payroll jobs rather than unique workers, covers private-sector establishments in these series, and can be revised. August 2026 values are preliminary. No inflation adjustment or causal inference was applied.

Sources