Yes – about 10,500 Ascension workers will see a pay raise as Ascension Health is adopting the $11.00 per hour minimum hour wage.
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About 7% of Ascension’s workforce will see this raise to $11 per hour beginning on July 5, 2015.
Previously, the St. Louis based Ascension paid minimum wages of $9 to $10 in most markets.
Ascension Health and 11 other subsidiaries of the parent company Ascension will participate in the pay raise.
Ascension joins other national employers such as Wal-Mart Stores and Target Corp. in raising wages for low-paid workers.
The $11 will even extend to home care workers, despite the lack of coverage by federal minimum wage laws to workers who provide direct home care services.
The raise will also extend to employees in kitchens, laundries, reception areas, and to aides and assistants to patients, medical staff and administrators.
In 2014, the healthcare industry employed 2.8 million workers who earned minimum wage or less.
These low wages are in an industry with some of the highest paid occupations.
While there are some trends to increase salaries at lower paying jobs, this trend has not carried over into the healthcare industry. This is in spite of companies such as Ascension and Aetna, which announced in January that it would pay its workers at least $16 per hour.
The push by cities and states to raise wages has had more success in labor-friendly markets.
Ascension has not released how much the health system will spend to raise wages.
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