Winston, Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health will raise its minimum wage from $15 per hour to $17 per hour, effective March 3.
The wage increase will apply to more than 4,400 health system employees systemwide. The move, combined with salary increases for 2023, represents an investment of more than $100 million, according to Novant, a 15-hospital system.
This is the third time Novant has raised its living wage — a rate based on local costs of living over and above the state-mandated minimum wage — in the last six years. In 2017, the system implemented a minimum wage of $11 per hour in North Carolina. In 2018, it adjusted the living wage to $12.50 per hour, which rose again to $15 per hour in 2021.
"Like other health systems nationwide, our teams and our operations have been stretched beyond belief the past three years," Novant President and CEO Carl Armato said in a Jan. 26 news release. "Despite these challenges, Novant Health is proud to continue to prior