Details of our latest offer to the Alliance of Health Care Unions
We believe that our health care professionals deserve great pay, excellent benefits, and opportunities to develop and grow their careers. We’ve put a strong offer on the table that enhances these things and more, while ensuring Kaiser Permanente can continue to grow and innovate for the years to come.
Below are some details of our latest offer for Alliance-represented employees. This reflects major parts of our offer as of September 12, 2025. We are still actively bargaining with the Alliance of Health Care Unions, so this information may change. Please visit this page for the latest updates.
Competitive wages
Across-the-board wage increases
Kaiser Permanente offers competitive wages in every one of our markets. Our latest offer provides Alliance union-represented employees strong across-the-board wage increases totaling 20% over the 4 years of the contract, including a historic first-year increase.
Minimum wage rate adjustments
A tentative agreement has been reached on minimum wage rate adjustments in every market:
- Northern and Southern California: $25.56 per hour minimum rate
- Colorado, Georgia, Mid-Atlantic States, Northwest, and Washington: $22.00 per hour minimum rate
- Hawaii: $24.00 per hour minimum rate
The establishment of a minimum rate will bring the first step of all wage scales up to the minimum rate and provide an increase to the other steps in those wage scales. If a job receiving an increase to the minimum rate is the first job in a career ladder, the wage scales for the higher-level jobs in the career ladder will also be increased.
Inland Empire wage scale adjustments
Kaiser Permanente will allocate 2.5% of payroll to adjust the wage scales of certain positions in the Inland Empire (Southern California) to address Alliance concerns about wage parity with similar positions in the Southern California market. This amount will not exceed 9% total when the first-year across-the-board increase is factored in. The allocation will be distributed in 2 equal amounts: the first half effective on the first pay period following July 1, 2026, and the second half on the first pay period following July 1, 2027.
Kaiser Permanente also has invited the Alliance and Inland Empire bargaining units to partner with us to help implement cost structure redesign initiatives for the Inland Empire submarket to help promote growth and affordability in this high growth-potential area.
Active medical benefits
We offer our employees high-value medical plans that have very little cost to our employees and their dependents — including co-pays and deductibles that are much lower than other companies offer. Plus, we offer these great benefits to our part-time employees. Our new offer improves these benefits with:
- Coverage for allergy injections in Georgia, Mid-Atlantic States, and Northwest
- Coverage for durable medical equipment in Hawaii and Northwest
- Coverage for hearing aids in Georgia and Southern California
Education enhancements
We support our employees to do their best work — today and in the future. We’ve offered to increase our investments in trust funds that help our employees reach their higher education and career development goals:
- Increased contribution to the Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust by 40% to provide training and education to Labor Management Partnership union members
- Increased contribution of $3 million to the Labor Management Partnership Trust Fund, which supports the activities of the LMP and its several training programs
- Increased tuition reimbursement amounts of $500 per year for 4 years:
- An increase in the amount of tuition reimbursement that can be applied to travel expenses to $1,000 (from $750) per year
- A new provision offering flexibility for employees who are paying off student loans to reduce their own contributions to their defined contribution retirement plan and still receive an employer match based on qualified student loan payments
- An increase in the contributions to the International Union of Operating Engineers’ national and local training funds — for which a tentative agreement has been reached
Retiree medical benefits
Organizations offering retiree medical benefits are becoming increasingly less common. Kaiser Permanente’s offer not only continues our generous retiree medical benefit but enhances its value.
These offers have already received tentative agreements:
- For new retirees after January 1, 2026, a supplemental contribution of $15,000 will be credited into their health reimbursement account at age 85 (up from $10,000)
- To achieve alignment with other markets, the health reimbursement account will be increased to $2,500 per year of service for new retirees in Northern California, Southern California, and Washington
- New retirees in Washington who were hired before January 1, 2021, will get a retiree medical premium subsidy in the amount of $43.05 per month, increasing 3% each year thereafter
- In all markets, the retiree medical premium subsidy can be used for any available Kaiser Permanente Senior Advantage plan, not limited to the lowest-cost plan
We’ve also offered to increase contributions to the UNITE HERE Local 5 Health and Welfare Trust in Hawaii.
Retirement income
We want our employees to thrive in retirement, which is why we offer retirement income plans with generous employer contributions. These improvements have been offered:
- All Alliance union-represented employees will receive the following one-time contributions to their defined contribution retirement plan:
- Extension of the qualified dependent death benefit for eligible dependents for Alliance union-represented employees participating in a defined benefit pension plan
- Increases to the employer contribution to International Union of Operating Engineers units participating in the multiemployer pension plan
- Improved defined contribution benefits for several units to bring them into alignment with the 1.25% employer match that most Alliance unions have
Work redesign strategy participation
Kaiser Permanente has invited the Alliance to work together to help make high-quality care more affordable across all markets. Given the challenges we face, such as changing customer demographics, new laws, and an unpredictable external environment, we are asking the Alliance to help make improvements that enhance member access, customer experience, and productivity, in addition to reducing costs. By working together, we can continue to provide high-quality care and improve the health of our members and communities.