Christiana Care Health System — the largest private employer in Delaware — will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour, starting February 2019, officials said Monday.

This change will affect the wages of 500 current employees, mostly those who have clerical, technical and service roles.

The health system, which employs a total of 12,000 people, is the first hospital system to make this pledge in the state, officials said.

The new wage increase is significantly higher than the federal and state minimum wage, which is $7.25 and $8.25 an hour, respectively. The state's minimum wage will increase to $9.25 on Oct. 1, 2019.

Christiana Care President and CEO Janice Nevin said in a news release that this is "the right thing to do for the health of our community."

"We know that there is a strong link between financial health and physical health," she said, "and as health care providers it’s important for us to lead by example in paying wages that support the financial security of our workforce.”



This announcement comes about two months after Amazon announced in October it was increasing its minimum wage to $15 for all U.S. employees. In recent years, there's been a growing national push to increase the country's minimum wage.

Contact Meredith Newman at (302) 324-2386 or mnewman@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @MereNewman.

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