NATCHEZ — Some Natchez Regional Medical Center employees will have smaller paychecks come May 1.

Hospital officials announced the cuts Thursday in shift differential and on-call pay.

Shift differential pay is given to some hourly employees, like nurses and lab technicians, when working night or weekend shifts.

Regional’s Chief Administrating Officer Bruce Buchanan said the cuts were made to keep the pay at NRMC more closely in line with the average of hospitals across the state and save money for the facility.

Hospital CEO Scott Phillips said the hospital’s employees that are eligible for the cuts are making too much money.

Once the cuts go into effect, Regional’s staff will be in line the median income of the state’s hospitals, Phillips said.

“This is just being prudent. We are not in a crisis,” Phillips said. “But we are not obligated to overpay.”

In February, cuts were announced that would have completely eliminated all shift differential and on-call pay.

But it was later realized that a full elimination of the pay would have been too drastic a cut for some employees and would have disproportionately impacted some employees, Phillips said.

Instead, Phillips and hospital administrators essentially reevaluated the pay system for all employees eligible for shift differential and on-call pay. Buchanan said eligible employees will now see an average $1 cut in their shift differential and on-call pay.

But with the re-adjustment in the payment program, some employees will actually see a raise in their shift differential and on-call pay.

Both Buchanan and Phillips said while no employees were happy to learn of the cuts, most understood why the cuts were made.

“We’re in bankruptcy and we have a responsibility to our debtors,” Phillips said. “We have an obligation to air on the side of conservatism.”

Buchanan said the hospital will now save approximately $200,000 a year with the new cuts.