HCA Healthcare workers picket across US demanding higher pay and more staff
Union members at HCA Healthcare, the largest for-profit US hospital operator, are holding pickets in several states over pay and staffing while the company reported $6.8bn in profit for 2025.
Workers at HCA Healthcare, the largest for-profit hospital operator in the United States, have launched picket protests in multiple states as part of negotiations for a new labor contract focused on pay and staffing levels. HCA employs more than 300,000 people across the US and UK, including 22,000 US workers represented by the Service Employees International Union, which is currently negotiating a new agreement with the company.
Employees are seeking a phased path to a $25 hourly minimum wage, improved pay scales, raises tied to the rising cost of living, and stronger benefits such as paid vacation, sick leave and job protections.
Esther Reyes, a single mother of three, has worked for two years as an environmental services technician at HCA's Las Palmas hospital in El Paso, Texas, earning $16.80 an hour. She says she often has to choose which bill to pay each month as prices keep rising while her wage stays flat. She and her coworkers planned an informational picket at the hospital this week, with similar actions scheduled at more than a dozen HCA facilities in California, Texas, Nevada and Florida.
Profits versus pay
HCA reported $6.8bn in profit for 2025, up 17.8% from the previous year, and earlier this year approved a $10bn stock buyback program. CEO Sam Hazen received more than $26.5m in total compensation in 2025 — 420 times the company's median employee pay of $62,955.
Jody Domineck, a pediatric nurse with more than 20 years at HCA's Sunrise hospital in Las Vegas, said that despite rising profits, hospitals continue to face staffing shortages affecting both workers and patients. In Nevada, union members are pushing for guaranteed nurse-to-patient ratios in the new contract after the state's governor vetoed a similar bill in 2025.
An HCA spokesperson said negotiations with SEIU are taking place individually at only a small number of affiliated hospitals, adding that talks were set to continue on August 11 and 12 and that the outstanding issues concern compensation rather than patient safety.
