Healthcare providers across Ohio have taken steps to raise wages for their lowest-paid workers. Akron Children’s Hospital announced this week that its minimum wage will increase to 15 dollars an hour by next year.
University Hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and MetroHealth have planned similar increases.
J.B. Silvers teaches healthcare finance at Case Western Reserve University. He said this is part of a nationwide push to raise the minimum wage.
“There’s a moral imperative I think for a lot of people on this one. It just seems like the right thing to do, and I think that’s probably the major instigating reason why people thought about doing this. Government people haven’t moved on it, so people that are socially responsible, they want to do it.”
Raising wages will increase healthcare costs slightly, Silvers said, but the impact will be marginal. He said this raise will make healthcare providers more efficient, reduce turnover and may actually lower costs in the long run.