Social Worker Salary
By now you’ve probably heard about the NASW Workforce Study from 2004. One of the variables they examined was social work salaries. Here’s a link to a summary of their findings:
More Money—Less Money: Factors Associated with the Highest and Lowest Social Work Salaries
http://workforce.socialworkers.org/whatsnew/salaryreport.pdf
This report provides data for licensed social workers who are employed full-time in a single social work job. Many of the study’s findings are common sense. For example, it’s not surprising that men have higher salaries, as do social workers with advanced degrees or more experience. Nor is it suprising that urban social workers make more money than their rural counterparts.
But here’s what did surprise me: Each year worked in the profession was associated with an additional $419 in salary. That’s about a 20 cent per hour raise per year. DEPRESSING! I knew that social work salary is low in general, but 20 cents a year … come on! Do we need social work tip jars?!
The report also examines case load size and social work salary, and supports the claim of many of my readers who complain of being grossly overworked and underpaid.
Adding insult to injury, more of the lower paid social workers reported having safety issues on the job than the higher paid social workers.
The document sums it up well on page 25 by noting that “social workers’ salaries are closely linked to the societal value placed on their clients.”
The report is interesting although discouraging if you want your paycheck to keep up with the cost of living. If you want to look at social work salary data by state, check out figure 4 of the report to see if your state is listed in the Salary Distribution by State table.
Source: Whitaker, T., Weismiller, T., & Clark, E. (2006). Assuring the sufficiency of a frontline workforce: Executive summary. Washington, DC: National Association of Social Workers.
