Details of our current offer to NUHW in Southern California
We believe our mental health professionals deserve great pay, excellent benefits, and time to plan and prepare for their patients.
We’ve put a strong offer on the table for you that continues to provide you with wages and benefits that are highly competitive and, in many cases, better than you would find anywhere else — and we continue to offer improvements in recognition of the important work our mental health professionals do to care for our patients.
Below are some details of our current offer for NUHW-represented employees in Southern California. Importantly, there are no takeaways — only enhancements in key areas.
We are still in active bargaining with NUHW, so this information may change. Please visit this page often for the latest updates.
Wages
Kaiser Permanente offers competitive wages in every one of our Southern California markets. Our new proposal increases your above-market position even more, with wage increases over the 4 years of the contract:
- 5% increase in year 1
- 5% increase in year 2
- 4% increase in year 3
- 4% increase in year 4
We also added a longevity step of 2% at 25 years.
And you will continue to be eligible for an annual incentive bonus of up to $5,000.
NEW! Improved bilingual pay differential, new preceptor pay, and increases in education leave and tuition reimbursement
- Improved bilingual pay differential to $1.25/hour, recognizing the important work our bilingual mental health professionals do to ensure we are serving our diverse population of patients
- New offer for preceptor pay of $1.25/hour for our mental health professionals who invest their time to support our growing workforce
- Increased total accumulated days for education leave from 6 to 10 days
- Increased tuition reimbursement travel allowance from $750 to $1,000
Life insurance benefit
Our offer now includes an improved employer-paid basic life insurance and accidental death and dismemberment benefit for individuals working 32 hours or more per week. The life insurance benefit increases basic coverage from $6,000 to $50,000. This represents a more than 7-fold increase compared to the current coverage. The accidental death and dismemberment benefit increases by 66%, from $6,000 to $10,000. This enhanced benefit would become effective on January 1, 2026.
Active medical benefits
Your medical plan features low copays, no deductible, and no employee premium cost sharing.
Retirement medical benefits
Most large companies only offer 100% retiree-paid retirement health benefits. We provide a subsidized Retiree Medical Plan, and have offered improvements to the Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) and HRA supplement contributions that add even more value:
- HRA in the amount of $2,500 per year of service for retirees after January 1, 2025 (up from $2,000)
- HRA Supplement of $15,000 at age 85 for retirees after January 1, 2025 (up from $10,000)
Retirement income
For employees hired on or after January 1, 2015, Kaiser Permanente in Southern California offers an industry-competitive defined contribution (DC) plan.
- Kaiser Permanente contributes 6%, whether or not eligible employees contribute to their plan, which is immediately vested.
- If an employee contributes 3% of their annual salary, we will match that contribution, yielding a total annual employer contribution of up to 9%:
| 6% employer contribution + 3% employer match = up to 9% employer contribution |
- Eligible employees can participate in the defined contribution match after only one year of employment.
- You choose how much additional money to put into your plan to help it grow more, and the plan can be paid out in the form of an annuity or lump sum.
For employees hired before January 1, 2015, Kaiser Permanente in Southern California maintains a defined benefit plan with a DC match.
Time for care planning and preparation
We’ve heard you when you say you need designated time to prepare for your appointments, for charting, and for professional development. Our proposal provides up to 6 hours per week for activities such as planning, preparation, and training, with 4 hours of it designated as protected time — this is something that’s not currently in your contract.
Student loan repayment program
As a thank you for choosing to work at Kaiser Permanente, we offer assistance to help pay down any student loans you may have.
- For bachelor’s or master’s graduates, it’s up to $10,000 lifetime maximum.
- For doctoral graduates, it’s up to $20,000 lifetime maximum.
Tuition reimbursement
Kaiser Permanente offers our mental health professionals $3,000 in tuition reimbursement — on top of the amount offered to all Kaiser Permanente employees.
Our latest proposal increases the travel allowance to $1,000 from $750.
We believe we can come to an agreement without an unnecessary disruption in the care you provide to your patients. You have our commitment that Kaiser Permanente will engage meaningfully and intentionally for a contract that is good for you, our members, and our patients. We ask the same of NUHW so we can reach an agreement soon, without any disruption.
Thank you for continuing to care for our members and patients.