Nearly 1,300 Charlotte-area hospital employees will see minimum wage bump in 2021
One of Charlotte’s major hospital systems, Novant Health, announced Wednesday it would raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour, starting in January.
That’s more than double North Carolina’s minimum wage requirement of $7.25.
The bump, up from the hospital system’s current minimum wage of $12.50 per hour, is the latest in a number of minimum wage adjustments for Novant over several years.
The hospital system first announced it would move its minimum wage past the state requirement of $7.25 in 2017, bumping about 2,000 employees to $11 per hour. Novant officials said in a statement in 2017 they realized the state’s minimum wage was “not a living wage.”
The 2021 minimum wage adjustment — totaling about $4.3 million — will affect more than 2,000 Novant employees, including nearly 1,300 employees in the Charlotte area, according to Novant.
“Though we’ve adjusted our living wage over the past several years, we recognized an opportunity to further invest in our team members to ensure they have the resources they need to live and thrive in the communities we serve,” Novant CEO Carl Armato said in a statement.
Novant competitor Atrium Health has also issued a number of minimum wage adjustment over several years. In February, Atrium raised its minimum wage to $13.50 per hour, up from $12.50. That change affected more than 10,000 employees, Atrium said in a statement at the time.
Also in February, Atrium said it plans to increase minimum wage again in 2021, to $15 per hour.
