Medical group bumps up hourly wages, costing at least $120K

The tightening job market in Florida, especially in health care and hospitality, has some companies making bold moves to both retain current employees and hire new ones. Consider Reliance Medical Centers: a concierge-style, senior-focused primary health care practice, with locations in Lakeland and Winter Haven, Reliance recently announced it will raise the pay of all hourly employees to at least $16 an hour.

There are three significant factors behind the raise, which will cost the practice about $120,000 to implement in 2021, says Reliance co-CEO Roberto Martinez. A primary one is to reward employees for their pandemic dedication. Also, in Polk County, where average income rates are in the lower-third among Florida counties, the raise signals that the practice is serious about being an employer of choice in the area. (Per capital personal income in Polk County was $36,649 in 2019, according to Federal Reserve data. That’s the lowest among nine counties on the west coast of the state, and lower than some of Polk’s border-counties, including Lake and Sumter.)