Mount Carmel raising minimum wage to $15

More than 1,000 Mount Carmel employees will get a raise when the health system increases its minimum wage to $15 per hour in November.

Mount Carmel, which employs about 10,900 people, announced the increase Tuesday. It represents a $3 jump from the current $12 per hour minimum wage that was implemented last year and goes into effect Nov. 24.

The wage increase will affect medical assistants, pharmacy technicians, phlebotomists, environmental and nutrition service workers and others.

“We are committed to providing the best care in central Ohio, and part of our commitment is investing in the people providing that care,” Mount Carmel interim CEO Michael Englehart said in a statement. “More importantly, it’s the right thing to do for our employees . ... It’s a step in the right direction for health care employers across the nation.”

The announcement comes as other central Ohio health care systems also are raising minimum hourly wages to the $15 rate. Nationwide Children’s Hospital said in April that increases were to begin in July and be fully implemented by year’s end. Ohiohealth announced in August that it would implement the increase on Nov. 3. And Ohio State University said in August that the minimum wage for nonunion employees at Wexner Medical Center would go into effect next year, with plans to discuss an increase for unionized employees.

A person making $15 per hour and working a 40-hour work week would earn $31,200 annually before taxes and other withholdings.

The state mandated minimum wage in Ohio is $8.55 per hour, and the federally mandated minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.

Yet a number of companies and municipalities have committed to a minimum hourly wage of $15 or higher the past several years.

Among them, Franklin County commissioners in July increased the hourly minimum wage for county employees to $15.

Nationwide Insurance put the $15 hourly rate into effect in 2015, the same year Aetna increased its minimum wage to $16 per hour. Amazon is among other employers with a $15 hourly minimum wage, and Target plans the increase by the end of 2020.

Fifththird Bank plans to raise its minimum wage to $18 per hour effective Oct. 28.