Senior living operators must be prepared to offer more than just higher wages if they hope to attract and retain workers in 2025.
According to the 2204 State of Seniors Housing report, labor-related expenses on average still range around 55% of total operating expenses. Rising wages, demand for clinical and culinary services has made for a more competitive staffing environment as the true cost of senior living staffing remains multifaceted.
Data from the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care (NIC) shows that wages in assisted living increased by 7.4% last year. But “the future will not be built on higher pay alone,” said NIC Senior Principal Omar Zahraoui.
“It will be built on better work environments,” he told Senior Housing News. “The opportunity ahead is not just to compete for talent, but to redefine what it means to build and belong to a senior housing and care workforce, invest in fast-track training pipelines, and create the kinds of jobs people want to stay in.”
This year, NIC expects senior living operators to increase wages for staff, and the first quarter wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that average hourly earnings for assisted living employees increased by 6.6% from 2024 levels. But wage growth is down 10% compared to conditions seen over “recent quarters,” Zahraoui said. This illustrates that variable rate labor expenses remain somewhat volatile, he added.
As senior living operators grapple with finding enough workers and keeping them, they are facing new challenges including the impact of ongoing mass deportations of immigrant workers across the U.S. Other persistent challenges remain, like balancing incoming employee pay with long-tenured workers across various community department roles, from dining to clinical care.
Senior living operators including 12 Oaks Senior Living, Arrow Senior Living Management, the Aspenwood Company, Distinctive Living, The Palace Group and United Church Homes reported that while staffing expenses in operations remained relatively flat in the last two years, they still face challenges competing for talent and reducing turnover.
To solve these challenges, operators that spoke with SHN say they are turning to automation in back office functions to provide staff more opportunities to interact with residents, while also closely monitoring overtime and employee burnout.
Care continues to be sore spot in staffing
Increased acuity in assisted living and memory care, along with new residents joining communities later in life and with multiple chronic conditions has forced operators to bulk up staffing models.
Senior living operators face a more complex care environment in assisted living and memory care as a result, putting more pressure on their ability to properly staff their communities.
Freehold, New Jersey-based Distinctive Living, an operator that has grown to over 50 communities since 2022, has seen wage increases in various nursing roles, including licensed practical nurses (LPN) and registered nurses (RN). The shortage of qualified nurses and increasing demand for clinical talent in competition with other operators has pushed up base pay by $3 to $5 per hour in many markets in which Distinctive operates, Jedlowski said. This represents a 27% increase in base pay for these important positions in the last year.
Across all roles, Distinctive has reported a 12.5% increase in base wages in the last 12 months.
“We’re focused on working smarter, driving efficiency in staffing and aligning compensation with performance,” Jedlowski said. “Through bonus programs, incentive structures and outcome-based rewards, we ensure that higher wages are tied to measurable results.”
12 Oaks Senior Living, a Dallas, Texas-based operator with over 40 communities, reported a 3% to 3.5% average wage increase in care positions in the last 24 months. These rising costs in care staffing has led 12 Oaks to monitor staffing ratios and provide community leaders with more data on hourly staffing and wage expenses, according to Chief People Officer Melissa Labor.
“We need to be able to provide for employees, the wages and everything else that goes along with that value proposition so that it is able to positively impact the operation,” Labor said.
These rising wages have led operators to also use artificial intelligence-supported technology platforms to automate certain tasks without needing as much human input.
“The future of efficiency in our industry lies in using technology to handle back-office tasks and freeing up staff to do what only people can do best: build relationships and deliver care,” Jedlowski said.
St. Charles, Missouri-based Arrow Senior Living Management this year embarked on an effort in “future-proofing” its operations to meet future demand and hone a more efficient operating model. The company’s staffing app, The Archer, lets workers swap and compare schedules and automates standup meetings and resident at-risk lists for improved care insights and helps bring more data to Arrow leaders in determining automation strategy planning.
Arrow management noticed that some culinary staff worked overtime shifts in some communities, and tasked those properties with coming up with new ways to prevent employee burnout and overtime. The company has also had success monitoring nurse manager shifts to cut back on its payroll spend.
“Deep-diving into our payroll helped us offset some of the cost from the wage increases we’ve seen in recent years,” said Arrow Managing Director of Human Resources Amber Moore.
Automation and providing staff with more insight into staffing hourly data has helped better staff Arrow communities during peak times like mealtimes to prioritize staffing levels and shift staff across operations as needed.
“We’re leaning into finding ways to automate our systems and we see that as something we’re going to continue to focus on,” Moore said. “I think making sure [operators] have a good process for their analysis, across all aspects of operations, is an important piece in solving the staffing puzzle in senior living.
Rising wages and margin compression between 2021 and 2023 has forced operators to make sometimes tough choices deploying resources where they are most effective.
United Church Homes also reported the highest wage growth in LPN and RN and certified nursing assistant (CNA) positions compared to other community positions.
“Clinical role wages currently are progressing at a much more rapid pace than any other category in our industry,” UHC Corporate Director of Human Resources Michelle Tillman told SHN.
On average, UCH has raised wages for employees 3% in the last 12 months with total operating expenses remaining stable over the last three years between 1.1% and 1.2%, according to data the organization shared with SHN.
The Aspenwood Company increased wages for frontline roles of 3% from 2024, in line with the company’s goal, according to Aspenwood President Heather Tussing. Roles including CNA, medical technicians, housekeeping supervisors and dining associates were some of the most common positions that saw the greatest increase in base pay.
“I think the entire senior living staffing model has shifted and I think this is our new normal,” Tussing said. “But I also think that along with the additional use of technology that’s taking place in senior living, we’re able to offset that because we can make sure our teams are being most impactful while they are working.”
Reducing turnover is an ongoing challenge for operators, and base wage increases can’t be the only support to attract talent or retain workers.
“The true cost of senior living can be seen in every aspect of community operations,” Tillman said. “Staff burnout can lead to subpar resident care, not having enough servers in the dining room and we’re serving cold food, shortages in environmental services and the building is just that a building, not a home.”
How immigration, deportations impact wages, worker availability
Due to the hardline immigration policies and mass deportations conducted under President Donald Trump, senior living providers could face an additional challenge in the fight against staffing costs. According to a 2025 letter reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, there are approximately over one million undocumented immigrants working in health care fields, 38,000 of those in senior care.
Earlier this year, SHN tracked how the Trump administration’s tough tactics and renewed deportation push could cause a “crisis” for senior living operators’ ability to hire new workers. In some instances, senior living providers rely on foreign-born workers with visas or undocumented workers to serve frontline department roles.
“[The Trump administration] wants people to be afraid,” Urban Institute Senior Fellow Howard Gleckman said during a senior living conference earlier this year. “If you’re relying on undocumented immigrant staff, it’s going to get very bad.”
While widespread disruption from the Trump administration’s immigration policies has not yet come to pass in senior living, operators say they are preparing for a labor pool with fewer workers. Those that remain are garnering higher wages given that smaller labor pool.
These impacts are already being felt as operators prepare for wage increases in 2026.
“We are now faced with a massive immigration crisis and it will inevitably lead to an additional wage crisis,” The Palace Group Vice President of Human Resources Andrea Rodriguez told SHN. In 2024, The Palace Group was named first in the 2024 list of “Best Workplaces for Aging Services” by Activated Insights.
In the last two years, The Palace Group has increased wages annually by 3%, Rodriguez said. But she is worried that losing a key segment of the senior living workforce could force operators to increase wages or fill gaps with overtime or agency workers. For 2026, The Palace Group is preparing for a potential 5% to 10% increase in base wage increases, according to Rodriguez.
In 2025, Rodriguez said The Palace Group and others are “just beginning to see the impacts” on operations of current immigration action by revoking legal immigrants’ ability to work. That’s created a “new, unexpected war on talent” facing operators going forward.
Increased immigrant staffing has been tied to higher staffing levels and better care outcomes, according to a report by the Harvard Medical School.
But just what the true cost of staffing will be in the future—remains to be seen and will continue to pose a complex challenge for operators as they navigate these new unexpected challenges.
“The cost will continue to run high, and to be honest, our team members deserve everything they earn and more. They are the backbone of our communities,” Rodriguez said.
Staffing cost outlook remains complex
Senior living operators believe that growing competition for frontline team members will not subside as acuity drives complexity of care delivery and they seek to meet strong consumer demand.
“Revenue follows performance, and when we invest in the right people, we’re able to offset much of the pressure caused by wage inflation,” Jedlowski said.
In the months and years ahead, Tillman said she expects senior living staffing costs to continue rising.
“Senior Living Communities will need to proactively address these issues at an operational level in innovative ways. We must stay ahead of this issue to successfully continue our mission,” Tillman said.
In 2026, 12 Oaks is forecasting a potential and approximate 3% increase in wages, while reviewing benefits offered to employees to find a sweet spot in staffing efficiency, morale and performance.
“There’s not just one lever anymore that you can pull,” Labor said. “Everything is on the table and we have to create that value proposition for our employees and prospective employees.”
