For Memorial Health to compete with the health systems of Columbus for employees, it must offer competitive wages, even at its lowest levels.
Memorial Health Board of Trustees members learned at Thursday night’s meeting that the local system’s minimum wage will increase to $15 per hour in the first half of 2020, more than twice the $7.25 federal minimum wage well above the $8.55 state minimum.
Memorial CEO Chip Hubbs said the increase is in response to similar action by central Ohio’s four largest health systems. He said Memorial must offer competitive wages that allow it to maintain the quality of its nearly 1,000 employees.
“Our decision to make this leap has everything to do with being competitive to retain and hire the very best employees in the region,” Hubbs said. “We are an employer of choice and we want to maintain that status, but I am very glad that the beneficiaries are many of our front-line employees who make an impact on our patients all day, every day.”
In August, three of central Ohio’s largest systems announced they would be increasing their minimum wages to $15 per hour, with a fourth announcing a similar move month later. One of the increases is already in place and Hubbs said a single department at Memorial recently lost three employees because of the wage disparity.
Ohio Health announced that it would be raising its minimum wage in November, from $12 to $15. About 4,200 employees will be affected by the increase.
Ohio State’s medical system said about 3,800 employees would be impacted by the move to $15 an hour next year. Employees currently making $15 an hour would be increased to $16.
Nationwide Children’s said about 1,800 employees saw their pay raised to $15 per hour in July. It was also announced that about 2,000 employees who were already making $15 an hour received a bump in pay to recognize their tenure.
Mount Carmel Health System was the last of the big four to announce an increase to $15. About 1,000 employees will begin receiving the increase in November.
“Though market driven, this wasn’t a hard decision,” Larry Schleeter, Chief Human Resources Officer for Memorial Health, said. “We have extremely talented team members throughout Memorial and we want to keep them and hire more just like them.”
Before the change, 59% of Memorial operating expenses were committed to salaries, wages and benefits. While details have not been finalized and an exact number of affected employees is not known, the board was told the move will likely take effect in April.
“This is a people business and we are constantly assessing the market relative to pay and benefits,” Schleeter said. “Healthcare is about people taking care of people, often at the most vulnerable times in their lives.”
Memorial has expanded its reach rapidly over the last ten years. In addition to Memorial Hospital and Memorial Gables, it now operates a busy outpatient facility in Urbana, owns 14 physician practices spread across three counties and is preparing to open new inpatient and outpatient pavilions as part of their Memorial 2020 expansion. The regional health system has grown from a $130 million operation to one with more than $300 million in business volume.
“Every member of the Memorial team contributes to our success and the work everyone does collectively has contributed to our incredible growth over the last decade,” Hubbs said. “That success allows us to absorb this increase without significant ramifications to our fiscal health. We are fortunate for that and have worked hard to get to this position.”