for NBC News: Working for companies owned by well-heeled private-equity firms can mean lower wages for employees by José A. Alvarado Jr.

Media News

for NBC News: Working for companies owned by well-heeled private-equity firms can mean lower wages for employees

josé a. alvarado jr.

Dec 15, 2021

Location: Burlington, New Jersey

Alma Jordan, a certified nursing assistant at the Marcella Center nursing home in Burlington, New Jersey, respected the residents she cared for there over the past 16 years. They were like family, she said, and she believes they’ve appreciated her attentiveness, especially during Covid-19.

Not so, the nursing home’s new owner, Jordan said. After Complete Care Management, the largest for-profit nursing home operator in New Jersey, took over the 150-bed Marcella Center in April, it slashed worker benefits, she and other employees as well as a representative from their union told NBC News.

Amid the pandemic, Jordan’s paid holidays were reduced, and her monthly health insurance costs more than tripled, she said. The company stopped contributing to the employee pension, replacing it with a 401(k) plan that had no employer match or contribution. Complete Care took away vision insurance and stopped a reimbursement program covering employee education costs, so Jordan, 45, won’t be able to recoup money she spent working toward a degree to become a licensed practical nurse.

“I put all my effort into this company, and someone else took over and they don’t want to give us what we deserve,” Jordan said. “For them, it’s business. It’s not about the staff and the residents. It’s only about making profits.”

Photographed for NBC News, with words by Gretchen Morgenson.

Working for firms owned by private-equity moguls can mean lower wages
Workers at some fast-food chains owned by public firms are getting better wages now. It’s a different story at restaurants owned by private-equity firms.
Nbcnews.com

1,068

José A. Alvarado Jr.

Also by José A. Alvarado Jr. —

for The New York Times: Former Rikers Employees Are Charged With Smuggling in Contraband

for Seven Days VT: 'Safe Haven'

for The New York Times: Lawmaker Is Left With ‘Lifetime Trauma’ as Attacker Pleads Guilty

for The New York Times: Health Insurers’ Lucrative, Little-Known Alliance: 5 Takeaways

for The New York Times: Baruch College, an Upward-Mobility Machine

for The New Yorker: The Haunted Juror

for Bloomberg Originals:

for Bloomberg: Guyana Is Trying to Keep Its Oil Blessing From Becoming a Curse

for The New York Times: Audit Finds Fatal Lapses in Mental Health Program Meant to Curb Violence

for The Wall Street Journal: America’s Biggest Bank Is Growing the Old-Fashioned Way: Branches

for The New York Times: The Young Black Conservative Who Grew Up With, and Rejects, D.E.I.

for The New York Times: How Rikers Island Became New York’s Largest Mental Institution

for The New York Times: This Venezuelan Family Won Asylum. Days Later, They Lost It.

for Southern Foodways Alliance: Offsides Fowl

for Anglers Journal: End of an Era

for Bloomberg: ‘Market’s Wrong, I’m Not’: Mike Mayo Loves Playing a Provocateur

for Brooklyn Vegan: Glassjaw celebrated 30 years with career-spanning Brooklyn shows

for The New York Times: Kendra’s Law Was Meant to Prevent Violence. It Failed Hundreds of Times.

for The New York Times: A New Push to Improve Mental Health Care for Homeless New Yorkers

for Bloomberg: The Other Side of Greenwich: Hunger Among the Hedge Funds

for CULTURED Magazine: At 25, Artist Oscar yi Hou Has Already Had a Solo Museum Show—And Written a Memoir

TIME’s Top 100 Photos of 2023

for The New York Times: Behind 94 Acts of Shocking Violence, Years of Glaring Mistakes

for The New Yorker: What Will It Take to Win Brooklyn’s First Majority-Asian District?