Intermountain Healthcare raises minimum wage to $15

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Intermountain Healthcare will increase its minimum wage to $15 for clinical and non-clinical workers effective Sept. 19, the company announced Wednesday.

About 2,200 employees who make less than $15 per hour will get a pay boost. Intermountain also will give raises to 12,800 workers who currently earn more than $15 per hour . Most wage hikes will be between 3%-7%, resulting in a total cost of $29 million, according to Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare.

All employees already received raises in April, and some nurses received another in June.

“The adjustments reflect Intermountain’s commitment to offering competitive pay so people can provide for their personal and family needs, while helping Intermountain attract and retain the very best talent to carry out our mission,” Heather Brace, chief people officer and senior vice president at Intermountain, said in a news release. “This adjustment is our commitment to ensuring we are paying employees—both current and future—fairly and at market.”

Intermountain periodically adjusts pay based on the job market, the health system said.

“While COVID-19 has had an impact on the labor market, this adjustment is not a direct result of the pandemic. It is to align compensation to the current market and ensure employees are paid fairly,” Brace said.

A growing number of healthcare organizations have increased their lowest hourly wage to $15, including the Cleveland Clinic, Jefferson Health, Duke University Health System and Advocate Aurora Health.

Intermountain is a not-for-profit company with 25 hospitals, 225 clinics, 42,000 employees, a medical group, SelectHealth insurance company and other health services in Utah, Idaho and Nevada.

Tags: Operations, This Week in Healthcare, Staffing, Intermountain Healthcare, Coronavirus, Compensation