Yes, we know this is not news. But we now have new research from the UW School of Social Work and the Seattle Human Services Coalition that provides evidence that human service workers are significantly underpaid for the difficult, essential work they perform. The UW team conducted several types of analysis to determine the pay gap between nonprofit human service workers and workers in non-care industries performing work of comparable difficulty. Their market analysis reveals that non-profit human services workers make 37% less than other workers with identical skill sets working in other sectors of the economy.
It will take a wage increase of 43-59% to correct the gap found by the market analysis alone, with a job evaluation analysis pointing to an even greater wage disparity. The findings along with great contextual information and recommendations for change, is contained in the Wage Equity Study. We look forward to working with the Seattle Human Services Coalition to advocate for better wages for nonprofit human services workers and nonprofit workers more broadly. One forum for learning more and taking action will be the Advocacy Summit on Nonprofit Compensation that is happening on Day 2 of the Washington State Nonprofit Conference. We hope to see you there.
