Living Wage

Challenge

Bellin recognized that 1.9% of our employees were not earning a living wage.

Actions

Bellin, in partnership with the IHI Leadership Alliance, participated in a 3 year long collaborative on Health Equity.  One of the initiatives the collaboration tackled was the issue of living wage.  Using the Living Wage Calculator (livingwage.mit.edu), we researched what our local living wage would be.  We then did an analysis of our 4,200 Bellin employees, and learned that 1.9 % of our employees were not earning a living wage. 

Over the course of a year, with careful planning and intention, we engaged our Board, senior leadership team, and our Human Resources Department in understanding the WHY behind making a system level change and paying 100% of our employees a living wage was the equitable and just thing to do.

Human Resources worked countless hours in analyzing the impact of this from a financial perspective, calculating wage “compression” and potential impact within the job codes of employees who were under the living wage, and putting together a proposal for the leadership team to review.  Leadership and the Board then approved this package.

Outcomes

As of December, 2019, 100% of our Bellin employees are being paid the local living wage.

Contact

Andrea Werner

Quote

At Bellin Health, one of our organization’s values is Diversity & Inclusion.  We embrace diversity of all kinds and enable every person the opportunity to achieve their full health and well-being potential.  We believe that our commitment to diversity and inclusion will enhance our ability to improve health and well-being for everyone in our region.

Christine Woleske
President & CEO, Bellin Health System
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