CINCINNATI — After studying a minimum wage increase, UC Health, Cincinnati's academic health system, will pay all employees no less than $14 an hour starting in January.
“As a healthcare organization, we have a responsibility to our patients – but we also have a responsibility to our people,” said Richard P. Lofgren, MD, UC Health president & CEO. "This is an investment in our employees and their families, who help us each day to live into our purpose..."
This pay increase gives all UC Health employees a living wage.
Ohio's minimum wage is only $8.55 an hour, and according to a 2018 MIT study, a single adult in Cincinnati needs to earn $10.93 an hour in order to support themselves. Even in a two-adult household, each person would need to earn $8.64 an hour in order to support their household.
Of UC Health's 11,000 non-provider employees, about 1,700 of them are expected to see a pay increase. Alongside a new pay scale structure, this new minimum wage is one of the recent changes UC Health has implemented to benefit their employees.
“At UC Health, we are proud of the work our employees and clinicians do to care for others," Lofgren said. "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."
