Wage Equity Study

Non-profit human services workers are critical to building and maintaining the human, social, and institutional strengths of communities. Yet, human services wages are systematically lower compared with other sectors and industries.

In fall and winter 2022-2023, researchers at the UW School of Social Work assembled and collaborated with a group of national and international scholars to investigate the extent of the inequity compared with other public and private sector jobs. The study included different methodologies and analytic approaches to investigating wage inequities, and reviewed factors that have suppressed wages in the non-profit human services sector over time, including race and gender discrimination, wage penalties for caring labor, and decisions made by federal and local policymakers.

The study and report were funded by the City of Seattle.

Want to learn about key local and historical policy developments related to Wage Equity in Washington state? View this interactive timeline

Key Finding #1

The market analysis found that human services workers are systematically paid less than workers in non-care industries, with estimated pay gaps of 30% or more across different econometric models.

Key Finding #2

Our in-depth job analysis found that human services workers are paid less than workers in other industries or sectors whose tasks are rated as comparable through a systematic job evaluation process.

Key Finding #3

The analysis also found that workers in Other Care Industries are paid approximately 11% less that workers in non-care industries.

Research