Kansas City hospitals boost minimum hourly pay to $15. Here’s the latest to do it
The University of Kansas Health System has raised its minimum hourly pay rate to $15, joining several other Kansas City area hospitals that have done the same in recent months.
The change took effect on Feb. 7 and will show up in paychecks beginning March 5, the health system said in an announcement Friday.
Hospital officials said despite financial challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, staff has not been laid off or furloughed, and the pay increase is one more way to support front-line workers.
Since last fall, HCA Midwest Health, Saint Luke’s Health System, Truman Medical Centers/University Health and North Kansas City Hospital and its subsidiary, Meritas Health, have increased their minimum base wages to at least $15 an hour.
But HCA’s boost, which went into effect Feb. 7, was not given to employees represented by the Service Employees International Union because the hospital system is still in contract negotiations. “By law, wages, hours and other issues are all subject to collective bargaining for those colleagues that choose union representation,” hospital officials said in a statement.
Several recent union protests have urged HCA to offer the same base rate to employees who are mostly support staff, doing jobs like delivering meals to patients and cleaning rooms. The service employees union does not represent nurses.
Members of that union at Truman Medical Centers celebrated their minimum wage bump virtually in January, “an important step forward,” said Lenny Jones, the union’s state director.
Support for a federal $15 minimum wage comes from many corners, from fast food workers and community activists in Kansas City to President Joe Biden and House Democrats who are pushing for it. But Biden has conceded the wage increase proposal might not survive as part of a coronavirus relief package.
Saint Luke’s announced its boost to a $15 base pay or nearly 2,000 of its employees before Thanksgiving. Officials noted how it stacked up against the federal and Kansas minimum wage rates of $7.25 per hour, and Missouri’s, which was $9.45 at the time and is now $10.30 according to the Missouri Department of Labor.
North Kansas City Hospital leaders said in December they raised their base wage out of a commitment to grow a more diverse and inclusive workplace. Employees getting the raise included patient care technicians, receptionists and environmental services workers at the hospital and Meritas health locations, hospital officials said.
KU’s decision was based on a review of salaries, cost of living expenses and other factors, officials said. Pay hikes went not only to employees making less than $15 an hour, but to many who were above that pay rate “to ensure appropriate differences in pay based on experience and responsibilities,” they said.
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