Ascension Health to raise minimum wage to $11 per hour

St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport, CT.

Beginning July 5, Ascension Health will raise its minimum wage to $11 dollars an hour, a move that follows growing protest across the country over minimum wage and whether current pay levels can support these lower-paid workers.

The change will affect 10,000 workers, an estimated 7 percent of the 150,000 in the system’s workforce, according to Ascension, the nation’s largest Catholic and nonprofit health network.

Most are support staff, such as kitchen and laundry workers, aides and assistants to medical staff and administrators. The pay hike will also apply to home care workers who are part of the Ascension system.

“Our Mission is to advocate for a compassionate and just society, and the first principle of a just society is the common use of goods, which individuals access primarily through wages,” said CEO and President Anthony R. Tersigni.

This marks the second time in two months a healthcare company has announced a minimum hourly wage increase. In April, Aetna raised its minimum wage to $16 per hour for an estimated 5,700 employees. Studies have shown higher wages motivates and attracts employees, decreases turnover and leads to better customer service.

[Also: Aetna ramps up benefits for off-site workforce]

In Los Angeles and Seattle, the minimum wage is now $15 an hour, and Massachusetts has proposed an $11 an hour minimum wage. However, the increased price of labor in Seattle and in Oakland, which raised the minimum wage to $12.25 an hour, has forced some businesses in those cities to close.

Other businesses have passed on the wage hikes in higher prices to consumers.

President Barack Obama has proposed raising the minimum wage from the current $7.25 an hour to $10.10.

A number of large retailers have gotten ahead of a mandatory hike. Wal-Mart, Target, T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, Gap and Ikea have proposed or have raised the minimum wage for their employees. McDonald’s company restaurants, which represent about 10 percent of the fast-food chain’s operations, raised wages by about a dollar over the minimum required.

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Dan Price, founder of Gravity Payments in Seattle, topped them all in April when he announced to his 120 employees that they would all be receiving a new minimum wage of $70,000 a year.

Price, who said he would take a salary cut to help pay for the raises, was making an expensive point about the wage disparity between CEOs and their employees. He also told the New York Times he got the idea from an article he had read that showed happiness rises with income, to a point. That point is about $75,000 a year, he said.

Twitter: @SusanMorseHFN