Atrium Health boosting pay, raising hourly wages for employees. Here are details.
Atrium Health employees are getting pay increases thanks to a $328 million investment from the hospital system, officials announced on Friday.
Advocate Health, the Charlotte-based parent company of Atrium Health, said its hourly minimum wage will increase from $16.50 per hour to $17.50 starting Sunday. Atrium called that the leading pay for health care markets in the Charlotte and Winston-Salem regions.
The 31,700 hourly workers getting larger paychecks include nurses aides, medical assistants, pharmacy techs and environmental service technicians.
Ken Haynes, president of the Southeast Region of Advocate Health, said the health care company is making the changes to ensure it is able to attract and retain workers.
Atrium Health has increased minimum wage by a total of 140% since 2012, officials said. The $17.50 hourly pay for its North Carolina employees is more than $10 higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25.
Rural Georgia and Alabama employees will see their hourly minimum wage increase from $14 to $15.
The minimum wage increase accounts for $45 million for hourly workers, and adjustments of pay ranges within the organization is another $40.9 million for salary investments.
An additional $117 million will be spent for a 3% across-the-board base pay increase for more than 64,000 Atrium workers in the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama.
Advocate Health, the main hospital system in the competitive Charlotte market, is the third-largest nonprofit integrated health system in the U.S. and serves about 6 million patients. More than 155,000 employees provide care in 68 hospitals and over 1,000 care locations.
