Exercise to Recalibrate Human Services Agency Budgets
The UW’s Pay Equity Analysis for Human Services workers determined that human service workers are paid at least 37% less than workers with comparable skill sets in other industries. The Raising Wages for Changing Lives campaign recommends starting the process of raising wages for human services workers by 7% ASAP, with a multi-year goal to raise median wages by 59% by 2028. This represents a minimum level of investment needed to stem the loss of workers to other industries. We acknowledge that even greater investments will be necessary to achieve equity across the sector.
To effectively advocate for this, we need to know what it will cost for human services agencies to raise wages by 7% and 59%. We recommend that your agency complete this exercise and share this information with all of your funders, public and private. This data will give your funders actionable information of the minimum investment in wages needed to support an equitable and sustainable human services sector.
To align with the recommendations of the analysis, wages must be increased without reducing any other aspects of total compensation, such as benefits. Wages also need to be adjusted to inflation annually in addition to these investments to ensure workers do not fall further behind.
Recommended Approach for Recalibrating Wages
1) SHSC has created a tool which applies the recommended 7% and 59% increase to the median wages found in the 2021 501 Commons Nonprofit Wages and Benefits survey. These can be used as benchmarks to compare to your current salary ranges and to calculate the difference between your current salaries and these benchmarks. You can look at the 501 Commons survey data directly to make the data in the tool more specific to the size of your organization and annual operating budget.
View tool here
To use this tool, go to file - download - Microsoft Excel to download an editable personal version to use.
2) Add up the amount needed in salaries and fringe for each employee to come to a total amount of additional compensation needed for your agency to reach these 7% and 59% goals.
3) Share this information with your funders so that they understand the level of investment necessary to pay the full cost of providing the services your agency provides. We also encourage you to share this information with us at SHSC to inform conversations with funders and policy makers.
Other Factors to Consider
This benchmark comparison is meant to be a rough estimate to understand how your wage scales compare to median compensation for this region. We suggest that you use this information to inform the creation of a worker compensation plan that centers equity by compensating for lived experience, language ability and prior experience in direct service. Our member organizations have created a draft compensation matrix that seeks to address some of these concerns. Click here for more information.
The UW study found that the relative wage gap in human service wages grows wider at higher education levels. Consider how to raise wages for everyone at your agency to avoid the impacts of wage compression, while prioritizing additional investments for those paid least. Also consider that the 501 Commons data is from a survey of current practices, which doesn’t ensure that there is relative equity between positions in our industry. This spreadsheet/tool is just a starting point!
