Avera Health, headquartered in Sioux Falls, is announcing a $50 million investment in its workforce.
It's a response to a pandemic-driven workforce shortage.
Kim Jensen, chief human resources officer for Avera, said in a news release, “Like never before, we want to recruit great employees and retain the great employees we already have.”
Avera is moving to a $17 per-hour minimum wage. The package also includes appreciation gifts, pay increases of $2 per hour for current employees, cost reductions for some tiers of health insurance, $1,000 payments to employees who refer someone from outside Avera, and 40 hours of front-loaded paid time off for new hires.