MaineHealth asks lawmakers to alter equal pay law to entice specialists to rural hospitals
Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington, Maine. (File photo)
An obstetrics and gynecology doctor left Franklin Hospital in Farmington for a job out of state that offered higher pay. A hospitalist, an ear, nose and throat doctor and two orthopedists also recently declined offers at Waldo Hospital in Belfast all citing low pay.
These are just some examples of the hiring challenges rural hospitals are facing, which brought Katie Fullam Harris, chief government affairs officer with MaineHealth, before the Legislature's Labor Committee Tuesday to ask that its members support a change to the state's equal pay law.
'So the gist of it is you'd like to pay people more money but you're afraid you're going to be in violation of Maine wage laws?' asked Sen. Dick Bradstreet (R-Kennebec).
Answering in the affirmative, Harris said MaineHealth wants the flexibility to offer a candidate who could fill a specialist position higher base pay to move to Norway, for example, or some other rural corner of the state where the organization has had trouble recruiting.
Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook) introduced LD 898 as a vehicle to address hiring challenges at rural hospitals, while staying true to the intention of the state's equal pay law, which is in part to close the gender pay gap. Specifically, the proposal would amend the law to allow pay differentials based on geographic location and credentials.
Under current law, MaineHealth has to pay an oncologist in Portland the same it pays an oncologist in Farmington. This bill would allow for a scenario in which the organization could offer a higher base salary to the Farmington physician because it's much harder to convince people to work there than in southern Maine, Harris explained.
The Maine Department of Labor had planned to oppose the bill, said legislative liaison Dillon Murray, who instead asked for more time to consider after learning more about the intention behind the change. In general, Murray said the department wants to be cautious with any changes made to the state's equal pay law.
Committee members asked Harris if the healthcare organization could use bonuses or other forms of compensation such as housing or transportation stipends to make offers in rural areas more attractive.
But those aren't the barriers keeping specialists from rural hospitals, she said. Rather, 'we have been told over and over again that the reason that we're being turned down for these positions is because we cannot offer compensation that is adequate.'
The committee also asked a series of questions about the potential of this bill leading current employees to seek raises. However, Harris said the intention is rather to target specialist positions, which are limited.
Harris said this would also address situations where a candidate has more credentials or experience compared to others in that position and wants to be compensated as such but can't under current law.
For example, Harris said a family medicine physician who had additional training in palliative care declined an offer because MaineHealth couldn't offer higher compensation for that training beyond what other family medicine physicians in the organization are paid.
The Maine State Chamber of Commerce also voiced its support for the bill at the hearing Tuesday.
The labor committee also held public hearings for two bills looking to adjust aspects of the state's minimum wage law.
A 2016 citizens referendum required the state minimum wage be adjusted every year based on the cost of living index. However, LD 206, introduced by Sen. Jeff Timberlake (R-Androscoggin) along with several Republican co-sponsors, would do away with those annual adjustments and set the minimum wage to its current rate of $14.65.
Alternately, legislation from Rep. Valli Geiger (D-Rockland) would replace the minimum hourly wage with a county-based living wage.
Starting in 2026, LD 853 would divide the state's counties into three regions and replace the statewide minimum hourly wage with a wage based on the cost of living in those regions using data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Living Wage Calculator.
The committee also heard arguments for and against LD 941, which would require employers to disclose wage salary ranges in job postings.
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The Seminoles were the first tribe in the nation to launch its own gambling operation in 1979, fighting off a legal challenge from the Broward County sheriff. Today, this tribe of about 4,300 controls six casinos in Florida and six more in other states, Canada, and the Dominican Republic, not to mention the Hard Rock hotel and restaurant chain with locations in 70 countries. Thanks to a 2021 agreement with DeSantis and the Legislature, the Seminoles are now running the largest legal sports betting operation in the country. Sure, calls to the gambling addiction helpline have doubled since their sports betting operation started. But hey, you can't make an omelet without impoverishing a bunch of blue-collar workers who don't have money to lose, can you? But what would happen to the state's share of this gambling bonanza? 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'There is very little transparency here,' said Clay Henderson, a longtime environmental attorney and activist who literally wrote the book on land preservation in Florida ('Forces of Nature,' I give it five stars). 'I've never seen a budget conference like this and guess no one has.' The Seminole gambling money was 'a solid commitment of funds,' he said. The repeal language 'appears to wipe this out and basically says the Legislature will appropriate these funds as they see fit.' He called the whole Seminole snatch-back 'deeply disturbing.' Even beyond the loss of the Seminole gambling money, legislators have made it clear that they want to cut the taxpayer resources going to Florida's popular parks. Both the House and the Senate are proposing to spend a mere $15 million on park facilities improvements, compared with $37 million requested by DeSantis (for once, playing the good guy in a park scenario). The House also does not want to put any money toward the Florida Forever land-buying program, even though nearly 75% of all Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment to fund such programs. But wait, it gets worse. House negotiators want to eliminate 25 positions in the Florida Park Service that are currently vacant. Draper told me that move made no sense, given that the state recently approved turning a parcel of Panhandle land into a new park in Walton County, No. 176 for the state. Staffing that new one would require hiring people to fill those empty slots, he said. 'You can't run a new park without any park rangers,' he said. 'People love the parks, and they really love the park rangers. But the parks are desperately understaffed.' A wise man (okay, it was me, so it was more like a wise guy) once said, 'Florida's state parks are one of the glories of this place we call home.' Our award-winning parks cover 800,000 acres where you can hike, fish, swim, bike, canoe, kayak, camp, and watch wildlife. At Florida Caverns State Park in Marianna, you can even spelunk, should you so desire. There are places of awe-inspiring beauty, like Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park, home to one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world. There are also places that preserve some slice of pre- Disney Florida kitsch, such as Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, where you can watch a mermaid show that dates to when it was a roadside attraction. No matter where they are, people flock to them, seeking a respite from the overcrowded sprawl that's spoiling the rest of Florida. The parks admitted some 30 million people last year, generating $3.6 billion (that's billion with a B) in direct economic benefits to the surrounding local communities. Given their economic and environmental value, can you believe that our duly elected dummkopfs want to shortchange the parks? It's like owning a souped-up Lamborghini and equipping it with the cheapest tires possible. Here's a partial list of what's broken, taken from the Politico story I mentioned earlier: 'At Torreya State Park along the Apalachicola River, the campground has been closed since last August for repairs. The campground at Suwannee River State Park remains closed until August, as is an overlook along the river… And the boardwalk at the Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park near Tallahassee has been closed for repairs for nearly two years.' Two years! That's an inexcusable length of time for a public boardwalk to be inaccessible. If one of the Disney theme park rides were shut down for two years, people would demand the park's managers be fired. In this case, the managers are those folks in Tallahassee who control the purse strings. Given how passionate parks supporters have been in protesting DeSantis' golf course plans last year, Henderson said, 'There's no excuse for cutting Florida Parks Service funding.' It's possible that our tightwad legislators don't care about the parks because they've never been to one. If you happen to know any of these lawmakers, invite them out to join you for a trip to a spring, river, hiking trail, or fishing hole so they can see how magical these places can be. And they're a lot cheaper than the theme parks, too. In the past, when I heard about some problem with Florida's state parks, I would sincerely wish that the legislators at fault would be forced to go to one park in particular: Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. Then, at least in my imagination, they'd be forced to stand in the 'splatter zone' for the park's biggest celebrity, Lu the Hippo, until they saw the error of their ways. Alas, Lu — made an honorary citizen of Florida by then-Gov. Lawton Chiles — has died at age 65 and gone to that great splatter zone in the sky. Lacking Lu's persuasive power to convince these lawmakers that they shouldn't take the parks for granted, perhaps we must turn to more conventional means of turning this boneheaded budget move around. DeSantis, lame duck though he is, still holds veto power over the budget. If Albritton and Perez fail to restore the parks money the way they should, I would encourage all of you to send the governor a strongly worded message encouraging him to employ his veto pen on that part of the budget. Feel free to point out to him that, under the state Constitution, that's his job. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
