Golden Data

Data story · hospital pay

Less Than Inflation

4,000 Brigham nurses strike for a raise that doesn’t keep up with prices. Mass General Brigham offers 0% across the board.

On October 14, 2026 at 7 a.m., about 4,000 nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, start an open-ended strike, the largest in Massachusetts history, unless a contract comes first.[9] A reader of The 200-Year Nurse asked for one on MGB. It was already there, at 86 nurse-years. This is the longer look: what the nurses ask, what the hospital offers, and what both are next to the system’s own numbers. Where a figure is the union’s or the hospital’s, it says so.

Oct 9, 202638 sources

2.8% a year

What 4,000 Brigham nurses ask for: less than Boston’s 3.7% inflation. Mass General Brigham offers 0% across the board.

3% back to April 1, 2026 and 4% on October 1, over a 30-month contract: 7.1% compounded, about 2.8% a year.[10] Boston prices rose 3.7% in the 12 months to July 2026.[33] MGB’s offer keeps the 5% tenure steps and adds a 2.5% top step, with no across-the-board raise.[3] By MGB’s own count the raise is $90M a year, 0.9% of a payroll of about $10B.[4][7][31]

The strike, in numbers

4,000
nurses, one hospital
197 days
without a contract by strike day (it ran out March 31)
93%
voted to strike open-ended, 2,986 to 215
86
years of a Boston nurse’s wage: what the CEO, Anne Klibanski, was paid for 2024 ($9.18M)
1,300
replacement nurses flown in for July’s one-day strike, at about $100 an hour
4
more days the hospital kept its own nurses out, to fill the replacements’ five-day contracts

[1][2][8][9][16][17] Health insurance and a cap on temporary nurses are the other open items. Both sides post their own updates: the nurses’ union at massnurses.org, the hospital at bwhnursingupdates.com.

Against prices

A raise under inflation is a pay cut with extra steps

Prices in Boston are up 3.7% in the year to July 2026; nationally 3.4% to August 2026.[32][33] Against that, MGB’s offer is 0% across the board. The 5% tenure steps it points to are a nurse moving up a scale that itself stands still, and a nurse at the top has no step left: her 2.5% rung, after a year of waiting, is about 2.5% a year.[3]

The nurses’ ask is front-loaded and then flat: 3% and 4% in the first year, nothing after, over two and a half years. Spread over the term it is 2.8% a year, which is under Boston’s inflation too. The last two contracts did better: 5% and 5% in 2022, then 20% at the top of the scale over the 2023–2026 contract, which kept the top step a little ahead of prices through 2025.[35][36][37]

The CEO’s line is the one that leaves the chart. From 2021 to 2024 her pay rose 71%; her mean raise over five years is 17% a year, five times inflation.[1][24]

  • Prices (U.S. CPI-U; dashed where assumed)
  • Top-step rate under the nurses’ ask
  • Top-step rate under MGB’s offer
  • Klibanski’s pay

Who gets a raise above prices?Yearly rates. Dashed lines are prices. The ask is its compounded total spread over its term; the CEO’s is her latest raise and her five-year mean.

0%5%10%15%20%Prices, BostonCPI, 12 months to July 20263.7%Prices, U.S.CPI-U, 12 months to August 20263.4%MGB offer, below the top stepacross the board; steps are separate0%MGB offer, top stepone 2.5% step, Sep 30, 2026, for a year2.5%Nurses’ ask, per year3% and 4%, front-loaded, over 30 months2.8%Nurses’ ask, first year3% in April, 4% in October7.1%Klibanski, 2024her latest raise9.3%Klibanski, 2019–2024mean yearly raise, five years17.3%

Has the scale kept up with prices?Index, October 2021 = 100 (before the 2022 contract). Prices: U.S. CPI-U annual averages, then 3.4% a year assumed. The scale: the signed raises at the top step, then each side’s proposal. The 2023–2026 contract’s 20% is drawn as one segment; its schedule is not public.

100110120130140150160170180202220232024202520262027prices (U.S. CPI), 2022-10-03: 108.0 (CPI 2022: 8%)prices (U.S. CPI), 2023-10-03: 112.4 (CPI 2023: 4.1%)prices (U.S. CPI), 2024-10-03: 115.7 (CPI 2024: 2.9%)prices (U.S. CPI), 2025-10-03: 118.7 (CPI 2025: 2.6%)top step, nurses’ ask, 2021-10-03: 100.0 (Before the 2022 contract)top step, nurses’ ask, 2021-10-03: 105.0 (5% across the board, 2022 contract (retroactive))top step, nurses’ ask, 2022-10-02: 110.3 (5% across the board, 2022 contract)top step, nurses’ ask, 2026-03-31: 132.3 (20% at the top of the scale over the 2023–2026 contract (30% with steps))top step, nurses’ ask, 2026-04-01: 136.3 (3% back to April 1, 2026)top step, nurses’ ask, 2026-10-01: 141.7 (4% on October 1, 2026)top step, nurses’ ask, 2026-10-01: 145.3 (New top step, +2.5%)top step, MGB’s offer, 2021-10-03: 100.0 (Before the 2022 contract)top step, MGB’s offer, 2021-10-03: 105.0 (5% across the board, 2022 contract (retroactive))top step, MGB’s offer, 2022-10-02: 110.3 (5% across the board, 2022 contract)top step, MGB’s offer, 2026-03-31: 132.3 (20% at the top of the scale over the 2023–2026 contract (30% with steps))top step, MGB’s offer, 2026-09-30: 135.6 (New step 22, +2.5%)top step, MGB’s offer, 2027-09-30: 139.0 (Step 23, +2.5%)Klibanski’s pay, 2022-12-31: 111.5 (2022: $6M)Klibanski’s pay, 2023-12-31: 156.1 (2023: $8.4M)Klibanski’s pay, 2024-12-31: 170.6 (2024: $9.18M)171 Klibanski’s pay145 top step, nurses’ ask139 top step, MGB’s offer127 prices (U.S. CPI)

Her raises

40% in 2023. 9% in 2024. Zero for the nurses.

Klibanski became CEO in June 2019 at $4.14M a year. Five filings later she is at $9.18M: up 122%, with a 40% year in 2023 that the Globe called the biggest raise among the state’s hospital chiefs.[24][25][26][27]

The board says the pay follows industry benchmarks, set with a consultant.[12] The same year the board approved her 9.3%, the hospital’s offer to its nurses was 0% across the board. 46% of her 2024 pay was bonus and incentive; the strip under the chart shows the rest.[1]

  • Klibanski’s raise, year over year
  • What the nurses are offered, and what they ask

How big was each raise?Klibanski’s total pay, year over year, 2020–2024; MGB’s across-the-board offer; the nurses’ ask compounded over its term

0%10%20%30%40%3.6%2020CEO25.4%2021CEO11.5%2022CEO40%2023CEO9.3%2024CEO0%MGB offersnurses7.1%Nurses asknurses

Her pay each year, with one nurse beside itKlibanski’s total pay by calendar year, and the median Boston registered nurse’s year ($106,180), on one dollar axis. Each bar: the raise over the year before, and how many nurses the sum is.

$0$2M$4M$6M$8M$10M$4.14M= 39 nurses2019$4.29M= 402020+3.6%$5.38M= 512021+25.4%$6M= 572022+11.5%$8.4M= 792023+40%$9.18M= 86 nurses2024+9.3%$106KOne nurseBoston median RN

What the 2024 total is made ofSchedule J columns of the 2024 Form 990, as shares of $9.18M

  • Base $2.76M
  • Bonus and incentive $4.19M
  • Other and benefits $133K
  • Retirement and deferred $2.1M

The ask, to scale

The raise is 0.9% of payroll

Where does $90M come from? It is MGB’s number: about $90M a year in wage increases, it says, taking the Brigham’s nursing labor bill to “nearly $1 billion”. It hasn’t published the arithmetic, and the union disputes it.[4][7] The wage math comes in lower. The raise is 7.1%, and 7.1% of the whole $1B is $71.2M; with all 4,000 nurses at the top step, full time ($219,752 each), it is $62.6M. For $90M to be only the raise, the bill would have to be $1.26B. MGB hasn’t said what fills the gap.[3]

Take MGB’s number anyway: next to the system it is small. When MGB cut about 1,500 jobs in 2025 it said the $200M it would save was “about 2% of salary and benefits”, which puts its payroll near $10B. The ask is 0.9% of that, 3.8% of the $2.39B profit, and under half of what the layoffs saved.[29][31]

MGB argues from the one line where the ask looks big: operating income was $59.2M on $22.8B of revenue, a 0.3% margin, so $90M is more than the whole operating result. Below that line, investment returns took net income to $2.39B. Both numbers are true; the bars put the ask beside what the system has spent on purpose, including the legislators’ $100M estimate for the two strikes and the lockout.[14][28]

  • The hospital’s money
  • The nurses’ ask

How big is the ask next to the system’s own numbers?Fiscal 2025 (the year to September 30, 2025) unless marked; one dollar axis

  • 0.9%of MGB’s payroll (about $10B in salaries and benefits, implied by its own “$200M is 2%”)
  • 3.8%of last year’s profit ($2.39B)
  • 45%of what the 2025 layoffs were to save each year ($200M)
  • 152%of the operating margin ($59.2M): the line MGB argues from
$0$50M$100M$150M$200MKlibanski’s 2024 payIRS Form 990$9.18MRatification bonus askedMGB’s costing$11.2MTop 14 executives, FY2024the union’s count, from the 990$35MLayoff expense, 9 months of FY2025the system’s own filing$53MOperating income, FY2025audited; a 0.3% margin$59.2MThe raise, by the wage math7.1% of MGB’s own “nearly $1 billion”$71.2MThe nurses’ wage ask, per yearMGB’s costing; the union disputes it$90MSpent on two strikes and a lockout66 legislators’ estimate$100MLayoffs’ yearly savings targetabout 1,500 jobs, per the Globe$200M

Hover or tab to a bar for the sum in Boston nurse-years and whose figure it is.

The two offers

Zero across the board, against three and four

Brigham nurses move up a 20-step scale, 5% a step, until they reach the top at $105.65 an hour. MGB’s offer keeps the steps and adds a new top rung, 2.5% up, on September 30, 2026 and another in 2027. It offers no across-the-board raise, so a nurse already at the top gets 2.5% and a nurse on the way up gets only the step she would have had anyway.[3][6]

The nurses opened in December at 10% and 5%.[22] By October 8 they were at 3% back to April and 4% in October, 7.1% compounded over two and a half years, with severance and on-call asks withdrawn and the cap on temporary nurses loosened from 10% to 15% of a unit.[10] MGB puts that at about $90M a year in wage increases, plus a one-time $11.2M ratification bonus; the union disputes the figure, and the wage math comes in lower (see the ask, to scale).[4][7]

On insurance, MGB would raise premiums on its post-tax plan 2.5%, about $10 a week for an individual and $25 for a family; the nurses want no increase and the choice of Harvard Pilgrim.[4][21]

What would a top-step Brigham nurse make an hour?Staff nurse, step 21 today; each side’s proposal through 2027. Steps below the top move 5% a year under both. One rate, not the typical nurse: how many nurses sit on each step isn’t public.

  • The nurses’ ask
  • MGB’s offer
$105$110$115$120AprJulOctJan 2027AprJulOctNew step 22, +2.5%: $108.29 an hourStep 23, +2.5%: $111.00 an hour$111.00 MGB3% back to April 1, 2026: $108.82 an hour4% on October 1, 2026: $113.17 an hourNew top step, +2.5%: $116.00 an hour$116.00 nurses

The gap at the top step: $7.71 an hour through 2026 ($116.00 against $108.29), $5.00 once MGB’s 2027 step lands. Below the top the gap is the whole 7.1%: a step-1 nurse (about $39.82, twenty 5% steps under the top) would see $2.84 an hour of it; MGB’s own $90M-a-year costing works out to about $12 an hour per nurse, more than the $7.52 the raise adds even at the top of the scale. MGB hasn’t said what makes up the difference.

  • Mass General Brigham

    • 0% across the board; the 5% steps continue
    • New step 22 at +2.5% on Sep 30, 2026 ($108.29); step 23 in 2027 ($111.00)
    • Premiums +2.5% on the post-tax plan
    • Says Brigham nurses are already in the top 10% of the acute-care market

  • The nurses (MNA)

    • 3% back to April 1, 2026, 4% on October 1, 2026
    • New top step at +2.5%; a 2½-year term
    • No premium increase; keep Harvard Pilgrim as a choice
    • Temporary nurses capped at 15% of a unit

The lockout

Five days of replacements cost more than a month of the raise

In July the nurses struck for one day. MGB had contracted about 1,300 replacement nurses through US Nursing on five-day minimums, at roughly $100 an hour by the agency’s own recruiting, and kept its own nurses out the other four days to fill the contract.[16][17]

Their pay alone, at a 12-hour shift a day, comes to about $7.8M: a floor, before flights, hotels, food and the agency’s margin, none of which MGB has disclosed. The raise the nurses ask for, prorated to those same five days, is $1.23M. The stoppage bought about 32 days of the raise; the legislators’ $100M estimate for the two strikes and the lockout buys 406.[14]

The pressure, itemized: four unfair-labor-practice charges, the first for NICU nurses kept from joining the strike; a $950,000 offer to a new chief nursing executive in the months of the 0%; talks ended October 8 with a refusal to meet again unless the nurses took the last offer; replacements already re-booked for October 14.[9][11][19]

  • What MGB spent on not settling
  • What settling would have cost

What did five days without the nurses cost, next to five days of the raise?Replacement pay is a derived floor (count × rate × 12 hours × 5 days); the raise is MGB’s $90M-a-year costing, prorated; each also in days of the raise

Five days of replacement nursespay alone: 1,300 × $100/hr × 12h × 5 days$7.8M · 32 days of the raiseFive days of the nurses’ raiseMGB’s $90M-a-year costing, prorated$1.23M · 5 days of the raiseTwo strikes and a lockoutthe legislators’ $100M estimate$100M · 406 days of the raise

A hospital that can run five days on strangers at $100 an hour is making a point, and the point has a price; this is the floor of it.

Posters

Print one. Put it where they will see it.

Six of this page’s charts as signs, with the details under the rule so anyone who reads one can check it. Vector PDFs: they print sharp at any size. Poster board is 24 × 36 (or 36 × 24 for the wide ones); a copy shop prints it for a few dollars; Letter is for a home printer and a window. Below them, the same numbers as a GIF, for a feed.

The Brigham, screenprinted, above the strike’s numbers one at a time: 4,000 nurses strike October 14; the nurses ask 2.8% a year, under Boston’s 3.7% inflation, against MGB’s 0% and its CEO’s 17.3% average raise; the raise is 0.9% of a $10B payroll; after July’s one-day strike the hospital kept its nurses out 4 more days for the replacements, whose $7.8M in pay was about 6 times the raise for those days; the CEO’s 2024 pay is 86 years of a Boston nurse’s wage; the close: asking for less than inflation, met with 0%.

The GIF

The Brigham, and the strike in six numbers

39 seconds, looping, opening on the strike: 4,000 nurses on October 14; their ask, 2.8% a year, against Boston’s inflation, MGB’s 0% and the CEO’s raises; the raise as 0.9% of a $10B payroll; July’s 4 days kept out and the 1,300 replacements, whose five days cost about 6 times the raise for those days; the CEO’s 86 nurse-years; and the ask, under inflation, met with 0%. Square, 1080 pixels, with this page’s address on every frame. The MP4 is the same loop for sites that turn GIFs into video anyway.

GIFMP4Still (PNG)

The building is the Peter Bent Brigham Building at Brigham and Women’s, from a photograph by Ajay Suresh (CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons), printed in three inks.

Made by scripts/build-strike-posters.ts and scripts/build-strike-gif.ts from the same numbers this page computes, so a poster or the GIF can never say something the page doesn’t. Free to print and share; the sources are on each one.

Boston’s CEOs

Nearly twice the next system, Beth Israel Lahey

The Globe reads every Massachusetts hospital system’s 990 each August. For 2024, Klibanski’s $9.18M was almost twice Kevin Tabb’s $4.7M at Beth Israel Lahey Health, which fell 13% that year, and more than the chiefs of Boston Children’s, Tufts Medicine and Dana-Farber together.[23]

Each bar is the CEO’s 2024 pay in years of the same Boston nurse wage, so the systems compare on one scale. MGB is the only one here whose nurses are about to strike. It is also the state’s largest employer: about 82,000 people before the 2025 layoffs.[31]

  • Mass General Brigham
  • Other Massachusetts systems

How many Boston nurses is each CEO’s 2024 pay?2024 total pay as the Globe read it off the 990s (MGB’s is this site’s own read) ÷ $106,180

0102030405060708090Mass General BrighamAnne Klibanski86Beth Israel LaheyKevin Tabb44UMass MemorialEric Dickson39Boston Children’sKevin Churchwell33Tufts MedicineMichael Dandorph25Dana-FarberLaurie Glimcher25Boston Medical CenterAlastair Bell21

How we got here

From an expired contract to a 7 a.m. picket

The dates the two sides and the state’s reporters agree on. The strike is the next entry; the union says it ends when a contract is signed.

  1. The 2023–2026 contract expires. The union lets it lapse so it can strike.[17]

  2. Nurses vote 99.6% to authorize a strike, the largest nurse strike vote in the state’s history.[18]

  3. One-day strike, more than 4,000 nurses. MGB flies in about 1,300 replacement nurses on five-day contracts and keeps the strikers out four more days.[16]

  4. First unfair-labor-practice charge: the union says NICU nurses were kept from joining the strike.[19]

  5. The 2024 990s post. Klibanski’s pay is $9.18 million, up 9%. The federal mediator relays MGB’s view that the talks are at a “practical impasse”.[23]

  6. Nurses vote 2,986 to 215 to authorize an open-ended strike.[8]

  7. Ten-day notice: the strike starts October 14 at 7 a.m.[9]

  8. The union publishes a report on the board (as many as a third may be billionaires; $49M to the vice chair’s construction firm) and asks the state to investigate.[12]

  9. Eleven hours at the table. The union drops severance and on-call asks and stretches the term to 2½ years; MGB holds at 0% across the board and declines to meet again unless the nurses take its last offer.[11]

  10. Sixty-six state legislators write to MGB’s leaders that an estimated $100 million spent on two strikes and a four-day lockout should have gone to a fair contract.[14]

  11. Governor Healey: “reopen negotiations now.” Mayor Wu asks both sides to stay at the table.[15]

  12. 7 a.m.: the open-ended strike begins. 1,300 replacement nurses from July have agreed to return.[11]

Method

How the numbers were built

One CEO, one year of pay, one nurse wage, and the public record of one dispute, with the side that produced each figure named.

  • The CEO’s pay is calendar 2024. Schedule J, Part II, column (E) of Mass General Brigham Inc.’s return for the year ending September 30, 2025, read from the IRS e-file XML by the same script as The 200-Year Nurse. A September filer’s return reports W-2 pay for the calendar year that ended inside it, so this is 2024 pay, the newest on file. The union calls the same figure “fiscal 2025”; the Globe calls it 2024. They are one number.
  • Earlier years are others’ reads of the same 990s. The Globe’s August stories give 2023 ($8.4M), 2022 (more than $6M) and the percentage changes; Lown’s table and the Paddock Post give the fiscal-year-labelled figures behind 2019–2021, shifted one year to calendar. Hover a bar for whose read it is.
  • The nurse. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, registered nurses, annual median for the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro, May 2025. Brigham’s own top step is $219,752 for 2,080 hours, so the hero also gives the count in top-step nurses, which is smaller. A step-1 rate is not public; MGB publishes the top of the scale and the 5% steps.
  • The ask is MGB’s costing. $90M a year in wage increases and the one-time $11.2M bonus are the hospital’s figures for the 3%-then-4% ask, from its September statement and its FAQ; it has not published the arithmetic, the union disputes them, and the union has not published a total of its own. The page checks it two ways, both upper bounds: 7.1% of the “nearly $1 billion” MGB gives as the Brigham’s nursing labor bill ($71.2M), and 7.1% of 4,000 full-time years at the top step ($62.6M). The earlier $128M over 18 months is from MGB’s FAQ for the December ask.
  • The system’s lines. Revenue and operating income are the audited fiscal-2025 statements as Becker’s reported them; net income is the Globe’s; investment income and total assets are the union’s reading of the same statements and are marked so. The $100M strike spend is an estimate in the legislators’ letter, not a disclosed figure. The $35M for 14 executives is the union’s count; ProPublica’s executive-compensation line for the same return is $36.2M.
  • Peers. The Globe’s 2024 figures, rounded as it printed them. UMass Memorial sits in Worcester, a lower-wage metro, so its CEO reads fewer Boston nurse-years than he would at home. Dana-Farber’s is its former CEO.
  • What this page is not. A case for either side’s number. The hospital says its nurses are already among the best paid in the country; the union says a 0% offer in a year the CEO took 9% is the point. Both are on this page, with their sources.
Every figure, with whose it is
FigureValueIn Boston nursesWhose numberSource
The union’s wage ask, per yearMGB’s costing of the 3%-then-4% ask, “approximately $90 million in annual wage increases”; it has not published the arithmetic, and the union disputes the number.$90,000,000848MGB[7]
Ratification bonus the union asksOne-time, and on top of the $90M a year, not inside it.$11,200,000105MGB[7]
The Brigham’s yearly nursing labor cost with the ask, per MGB“Nearly $1 billion”; taken here as an upper bound.$1,000,000,0009,418MGB[7]
The union’s earlier ask over an 18-month contractBefore the union cut its proposal and stretched the term to two and a half years.$128,000,0001,206MGB[4]
What MGB spent on two strikes and a lockoutThe estimate in the 66 legislators’ letter; MGB has published no figure.$100,000,000942lawmakers[14]
MGB’s top 14 executives, FY2024ProPublica’s reading of the same 990 puts the executive-compensation line at $36.2M.$35,000,000330MNA[20]
What MGB offered a new chief nursing executive$950,0009MNA[9]
Operating revenue, FY2025$22,800,000,000214,730filing[28]
Operating income, FY2025A 0.3% margin; $46M the year before.$59,176,000557filing[28]
Net income, FY2025Up from $2.0B; lifted by investment returns.$2,390,000,00022,509filing[29]
Investment income, FY2025The union’s reading of the audited statements.$1,750,000,00016,481MNA[9]
Total assets, September 30, 2025$35,800,000,000337,163MNA[9]
Yearly savings the 2025 layoffs were to deliverAbout 2% of salary and benefits; the Globe counted roughly 1,500 of 82,000 jobs, a figure MGB never confirmed.$200,000,0001,884MGB[31]
Layoff expense booked in the first nine months of FY2025$53,000,000499filing[30]

Data: the MGB row of the-200-year-nurse.csv (IRS 990 XML and BLS OEWS, built by scripts/fetch-nurse-ceo-pay.py) and mgb-nurse-strike.csv, every public figure on this page with its source URL. Every source on the data map.

Sources

Every public figure, numbered

The union’s releases and the hospital’s pages are each side’s case; the Globe, WBUR, Becker’s and the filings are the record.

  1. IRS Form 990 e-file XML (Mass General Brigham Inc., EIN 04-3230035), Schedule J, return for the year ending September 30, 2025 (posted 2026). Read by scripts/fetch-nurse-ceo-pay.py; the row in the-200-year-nurse.csv.
  2. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Registered nurses (29-1141), Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro, May 2025 (May 2025 release).
  3. Mass General Brigham, BWH wage proposal to the MNA (Oct 2026). The 20-step scale, the $105.65 and $116.47 top rates, the 2.5% steps on September 30, 2026 and in 2027.
  4. Mass General Brigham, Nurse union updates: FAQ (Jul–Oct 2026). The $128M costing of the earlier ask; the 2.5% premium increase on the post-tax plan ($10 and $25 a week).
  5. Mass General Brigham, Brigham and Women’s Hospital nurse union updates (Oct 2026).
  6. The Boston Globe, Brigham and Women’s Hospital nurses to vote on authorizing indefinite strike (Sep 15, 2026). The 3%-then-4% ask; the 2.5% top-step offer with no across-the-board raise.
  7. GBH News, Brigham nurses threaten another strike two months after largest in state history (Sep 24, 2026). MGB’s statement: about $90M a year in wage increases plus an $11.2M ratification bonus, taking the Brigham’s nursing labor cost to “nearly $1 billion”. Its FAQ says “would exceed $90 million in added nursing labor costs”.
  8. WBUR, Brigham hospital nurses vote to authorize indefinite strike as contract talks remain stalled (Sep 25, 2026).
  9. Massachusetts Nurses Association, Brigham nurses schedule largest open-ended nurse strike in MA history to begin October 14 (Oct 2, 2026). The union’s reading of MGB’s FY2025: $22.8B revenue, $2.39B profit, $1.75B investment income, $35.8B assets; the $950,000 chief-nursing-executive offer.
  10. Massachusetts Nurses Association, Brigham nurses seek compromise to avert strike; MGB makes minimal movement and ends talks (Oct 8, 2026). The 3% and 4% raises, the 2½-year term, the withdrawn severance and on-call proposals, the 15% cap on temporary nurses.
  11. The Boston Globe, Brigham nurses, hospital fail to reach deal as strike date nears (Oct 8, 2026).
  12. The Boston Globe, Brigham nurses union alleges MGB board rife with conflicts of interest, requests state investigation (Oct 6, 2026).
  13. Massachusetts Nurses Association, Mass General Brigham board research report (Sep 2026).
  14. Axios Boston, Mass General Brigham, nurses stalemate drags as strike nears (Oct 9, 2026). The letter 66 state lawmakers sent on October 8, and its estimate: about $100M spent on two strikes and a four-day lockout. MGB has published no figure.
  15. CommonWealth Beacon, Gov. Healey steps in again as Brigham nurses near an indefinite strike (Oct 2026).
  16. The Boston Globe, Professional scab or essential backstop? Replacement nurses become a flashpoint in Brigham strike (Jul 10, 2026). US Nursing’s ten-day assignments at roughly $100 an hour; the five-day minimum behind the lockout.
  17. Boston 25 News, Brigham and Women’s nurses strike begins, demanding better wages, benefits (Jul 8, 2026). Without a contract since March 31.
  18. Massachusetts Nurses Association, In largest nurse strike vote in MA history, Brigham nurses vote 99.6% to authorize a strike (Jun 16, 2026).
  19. Massachusetts Nurses Association, MNA files federal unfair labor practice charge against Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Jul 27, 2026). The fourth charge followed on October 5.
  20. Massachusetts Nurses Association, $9.2 million Mass General Brigham CEO pay sparks outrage among nurses and clinicians (Aug 18, 2026). $9,180,758, up about $800,000; the top 14 executives above $35M.
  21. Massachusetts Nurses Association, Brigham Nurses United (Oct 2026). The union’s running account of the proposals, including health insurance.
  22. Massachusetts Nurses Association, MNA contract proposals at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Dec 1, 2025). The opening ask: 10% on April 1, 2026, 5% in 2027, a top step 5% higher.
  23. The Boston Globe, Most hospital CEO pay packages in Massachusetts rose in 2024, new records show (Aug 17, 2026). Tabb $4.7M (−13%), Dickson $4.1M (+6%), Churchwell almost $3.5M (+9%), Dandorph $2.7M (+28%), Glimcher nearly $2.7M, Bell $2.2M (+13%).
  24. The Boston Globe, Mass. hospitals pushed executive pay to new heights in 2023. Here’s how much CEOs made. (Aug 15, 2025). $8.4M for 2023, a 40.1% rise, about $4.3M of it bonus and incentive.
  25. The Boston Globe, 2022 was a down year for hospital CEO pay — except for Mass General Brigham (Aug 16, 2024). More than $6M for 2022, 11.6% over 2021.
  26. Lown Institute, Hospital CEO pay in Massachusetts over four years: whose pay increased the most? (2025). Fiscal-year labels: FYE 2021 $4.3M, 2022 $5.4M, 2023 $6.0M, 2024 $8.4M. A September filer’s return reports the calendar year before, so FYE 2021 is calendar 2020.
  27. Paddock Post, Executive compensation at Mass General Brigham (2022) (Mar 20, 2025). Tabulates the 990s: $4.14M on the FYE 2020 return (calendar 2019), $4.29M on FYE 2021.
  28. Becker’s Hospital Review, Mass General Brigham posts $59M FY25 operating gain (Dec 2025). Operating revenue $22.8B, up 11%; income from operations $59,176 thousand in the audited statements.
  29. The Boston Globe, MGB bolstered its bottom line this year. Other state hospital groups have reported multi-million losses. (Dec 20, 2025). Net income $2.4B, up from $2.0B.
  30. Fierce Healthcare, Despite stronger Q3, Mass General Brigham’s operations down $44M across 9 months due to layoff expenses (Aug 2025).
  31. The Boston Globe, Mass General Brigham announces largest layoff in its history amid ongoing restructuring (Feb 10, 2025). At least $200M a year, about 2% of salary and benefits; roughly 1,500 of 82,000 jobs, per the Globe’s sources.
  32. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index summary, August 2026 (Sep 2026). All items up 3.4% over the 12 months to August 2026.
  33. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Northeast Information Office, Consumer Price Index, Boston-Cambridge-Newton, July 2026 (Aug 2026). All items up 3.7% over the year; 3.1% annual average 2024 to 2025.
  34. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Consumer Price Index, 1913– (2026). Annual-average CPI-U changes: 2019 1.8%, 2020 1.2%, 2021 4.7%, 2022 8.0%, 2023 4.1%, 2024 2.9%, 2025 2.6%.
  35. Massachusetts Nurses Association, Brigham and Women’s Hospital nurses vote to ratify strong MNA contract (May 24, 2022). 5% across the board retroactive to October 3, 2021 and 5% on October 2, 2022; $2,000 ratification bonus.
  36. Massachusetts Nurses Association, Brigham and Women’s Hospital nurses vote to ratify new contract that averted potential strike (Sep 11, 2024). 20% to 30% over two and a half years depending on place on the scale; the public summary gives no year-by-year schedule.
  37. The Boston Globe, Brigham and Women’s Hospital nurses authorize another potential strike. This time, it could last much longer. (Sep 24, 2026). The ask: 3% for the first six months, 4% for the next twelve; the hospital: no new across-the-board raise, a 5% step for each of the first two decades.
  38. Golden Data, The 200-Year Nurse: nurse pay vs. hospital CEO pay, 16 systems (Oct 3, 2026). Where the MGB row and the Boston nurse wage were first built; the Reddit request that led here is in its comments.