New Jersey’s Cooper University Health Care just announced that it will begin paying employees a $15 minimum wage at the start of next year.
George Norcross, the Camden-based health system’s chairman, stated Tuesday that the change would affect roughly 10 percent of the organization’s 7,500 employees.
The decision comes as Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and the Democrat-controlled NJ legislature are considering a statewide minimum wage hike to $15 an hour.
On Tuesday, Murphy praised Cooper’s decision in an official statement, saying: "Cooper Hospital is making a meaningful long-term investment in both its workforce and in the local economy." He added that more than one million New Jersey workers earn less than $15 an hour.
Cooper is the first hospital system to raise its employee minimum wage to $15, Murphy says.
Cooper, a major employer in southern New Jersey, currently operates a hospital, cancer center and children’s hospital.
