Resident doctors at Temple Health and Jefferson Health have ratified their first-ever union contracts, pushing coverage of Philadelphia-area resident physicians under union agreements above 80 percent. The deals bring roughly 20 percent salary increases and, for residents at Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital, an end to a pay disparity that had left them earning less than counterparts doing the same work at other Jefferson locations.
Temple Health resident doctors and Jefferson Health resident doctors both organized with the Committee of Interns and Residents, or CIR-SEIU, according to WHYY. Under the new agreements, the contracts include equal pay for doctors doing similar work at different hospitals, protections against assigning residents significant nonclinical work, and salary increases of around 20 percent, per CIR-SEIU. The Jefferson contract also provides pay for medical residents awaiting resolution of visa disruptions.
Closing a Long-Standing Pay Gap at Einstein
Residents at Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital had been paid less than their counterparts doing similar work at other Jefferson sites, a disparity dating back to 2024. Adrian Kase, a resident doctor in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Jefferson Health, said the salary increases will relieve stress for doctors and improve patient care. Kase also noted that the first doctor patients typically see when they arrive at a hospital is most likely a resident.
A Temple Health spokesperson said the ratified contract fairly supports residents and Temple Health while preserving high-quality patient care. A Jefferson Health spokesperson said Jefferson looks forward to moving ahead together with residents to support patients.
Following Penn Medicine's Lead
The Temple and Jefferson ratifications follow a path first cut by Penn Medicine, whose residents became the first unionized residency program in Pennsylvania in 2024 and ratified their own union contract that year. Penn Medicine residents now have a formal process to discuss workplace issues with hospital management, which they have used to address the cleanliness of call rooms and how to handle federal immigration agents trying to enter hospitals, according to the same WHYY report.
Lane Kantor, a regional vice president for CIR-SEIU who is also an internal medicine and pediatrics resident at Penn Medicine and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, has helped guide the union's growth in the region. The ratifications place Temple and Jefferson doctors alongside Penn Medicine residents as part of a nationwide trend of medical residents unionizing.
Debt Loads Driving the Push
Medical students graduate with substantial student loan debt, and average medical school debt exceeds $200,000 per the Education Data Initiative — a financial backdrop that has made pay increases and workload protections central demands for resident physicians nationwide. That debt burden, paired with long clinical hours, has helped fuel a broader wave of resident organizing beyond Philadelphia, including similar bargaining fights among New York City resident doctors and a first contract ratified by resident physicians at UChicago Medicine.
Philadelphia's resident unionization wave traces back to a coordinated filing in late 2024 that included Temple, Jefferson, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Einstein Healthcare Network, as Hoodline reported at the time. Not every institution followed the same path, however, since CHOP resident physicians narrowly voted against joining CIR-SEIU during a December 2024 election, making it the sole major Philadelphia health system where the regional union drive fell short.
With more than 80 percent of resident doctors in the Philadelphia region now covered by union contracts, the ratifications mark a milestone for a labor movement that has steadily expanded its footprint across the city's major teaching hospitals since Penn Medicine residents broke ground in 2024.
