The regents of the University of California system last Thursday approved more than $3 million in performance-based payments for 38 executives at the five UC hospitals throughout California.

Mark Yudof, UC President, emphasized these were incentives, not bonuses.

"They're not bonuses, they are incentive pay to get certain behavior," Yudof was quoted as saying in the Sacramento Bee.

Executives received these incentive payments for meeting goals such as infection reduction, increased patient satisfaction, increasing reimbursements from insurers, and reducing expenses and costs.

Such payments are not limited to UC executives. Nurses, clerks, janitors, and the like also receive incentive pay tied to their base salary. Overall, more than 22,000 workers at UC medical centers have received $30 million in incentive payments for 2008-09.

The Board noted that these payments do not come from the State’s general fund, but out of revenues generated by the hospitals in billing patients and insurers. Still, union officials found the pay excessive.

"Workers are being asked to put less food on their families' tables while UC executives continue to enrich themselves," said Lakesha Harrison, president of Local 3299 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in the Sacramento Bee.