One of Greater Cincinnati’s largest employers raises minimum wage, boosts pay for 15% of workforce

By  – Staff reporter, Cincinnati Business Courier

UC Health disclosed today that the hospital system will raise the minimum wage for all employees to $14 an hour in January, which will boost pay for about 15% of its workforce.

About 1,700 of UC Health’s 11,000 non-provider employees will receive a pay increase, which will cost nearly $1 million annually. Employees were notified this afternoon.

UC Health, which is the fifth-largest employer in the region, operates four inpatient campuses and 58 outpatient locations across Greater Cincinnati. The University of Cincinnati Medical Center is the flagship hospital.

“As a health care organization, we have a responsibility to our patients – but we also have a responsibility to our people,” said Dr. Rick Lofgren, CEO of UC Health. “This is an investment in our employees and their families, who help us each day … advance healing and reduce suffering.”

UC Health began studying a minimum wage increase early this year.

The current Ohio minimum wage is $8.55. UC Health’s minimum will be about 60% higher than that. The federal minimum wage is $7.25.

The hospital system has made other recent changes to benefit employees, including a redesigned pay scale structure.

“We know our employees have a choice about where they work, and together we share in the responsibility to make UC Health the place where patients want to receive care and where employees and clinicians want to care for others,” Lofgren said.

In addition to the UC Medical Center, UC Health includes West Chester Hospital, the Daniel Drake Center for Post-Acute Care in Hartwell, Bridgeway Pointe Assisted Living in Hartwell, University of Cincinnati Physicians and UC Health Ambulatory Services (which include more than 800 board-certified clinicians and surgeons), the Lindner Center of Hope mental health hospital in Mason and specialized institutes such as the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute, the UC Cancer Institute and the UC Heart, Lung & Vascular Institute.