As per the 2009 study commissioned by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) (results of which were released in May 2010), the median base annual salary for a social worker is $55,000 with 12% earning $90,000 or more per year, and 12% earning less than $30,000.
When looking at the median hourly wage [for social workers who are paid by the hour], the median hourly wage for practitioners is $29.64 per hour with 8% earning $60 or more/hour and 13% earning less than $20/hour.
Social Work Pay by Gender and Practice
Moving onto the topic of pay by gender, when the Equal Pay Act of 1963 passed, women received 59 cents for every dollar earned by men. In 2009, over 40 years later, the wage gap for women has narrowed to 77 cents, but remains.
As you can see, in the below chart, female social workers earn about 83 cents for every dollar earned by male social workers. That said, there is great variation on the inequity of pay by practice setting.
To illustrate, female social workers employed in the Hospice, Palliative Care or Government Agencies earn a median of 93 cents on the male dollar. This is in marked contrast to the pay earned by women working in private or group practice; here they are only earning between 70 and 74 cents for every dollar men earn.
There are 2 interesting take-aways here for us women:
- When we are being offered a salary for a new position, it is clear that we are not being offered the highest amount the employer can pay.
- In other words, ask for more than what is first offered! Check out @LisaGates1 She tweets and writes a blog She Negotiates providing valuable guidance specifically for women on how to handle this rather difficult topic.
- We may be our own worst enemies when it comes to salaries. We are paid the lowest amount when we set our hourly rate [in private/group practice].
- Find out what our male social work colleagues [with similar levels of experience etc.] are charging and set those same rates for our clients.
We women have to take more action! According to research conducted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), if change continues at the same slow pace it has been for the past fifty years, women are likely to only reach pay parity across all professions by the year 2056!
Does Education and/or Experience Make a Difference?
Yes, but not enough… Below is a document that NASW put together summarizing the current salary ranges for social workers according to years of experience and level of education. My one objection to this document is its title: “NASW Salary Guidelines.”
Why are these referred to as guidelines? Is there no room for social workers with master level degrees to demand and expect higher salaries than the median salaries currently offered?
To see variations in compensation by setting type, practice area and region, please see Social Worker Pay By Setting, Practice & Region. To see differences in income by years of experience, check out How Much Do Social Workers Earn?
Lastly, you may want to check out this Social Worker Salary Calculator to see how much you will earn depending on your particular characteristics.
NEW TOOL: You may want to check out the Close the Gap – [about $10] < it helps you define your goals, communicate your value, build your support network and negotiate your salary. [FYI, I get no affiliate fee; I’m sharing this tool with you because it was created by Lisa Gates, a negotiator expert whom I recommend.]
What are your thoughts/comments about this topic?
References:
NASW Center for Workforce Studies & Social Work Practice (2011). Social Work Salaries by Gender: Occupational Profile.
NASW (May 2010). NASW 2009 Compensation & Benefits Study: Summary of Key Compensation Findings.
This only confirms what I have known, and I am sick of it. It is insulting to live in a city the size of Denver and make less than median wages almost 20 years post-graduate degree. Thanks for sharing this – I am sending it to my colleagues at work;-)
Thanks, LuAnn, for sharing your thoughts and reactions to this information!
I totally agree with you that all social workers [regardless of gender] deserve to be paid more… I don’t understand why it seems that social work associations are not advocating for higher salaries. Perhaps they feel that their hands are tied?
Also, thank you for passing this post on to your colleagues at work 🙂
Dorlee,
I want to say I don’t understand why social workers aren’t compensated as well as other mental health professionals, but it is probably because social workers are associated with working with the”poor” and because even though the social work profession advocates for so many populations it does not advocate for the recognition and compensation the profession itself deserves.
Hi Reeta,
Thank you for raising these very good points. There are certainly many other mental health professionals who also work with the poor such as psychologists and psychiatrists but you are probably right in that far more social workers as a whole work advocate on behalf of the poor…
Wouldn’t it be great if social workers employed some of their terrific advocacy skills on their own behalf and not just on behalf of their clients?!
Regarding the women in private/group practice who are not charging as much as their male colleagues, I’m thinking that they may benefit from an examination of their relationship with money as well as their attitudes, thoughts and feelings about money to find out what may be holding them back/causing them discomfort in this regard.
Do you agree? And if so, wouldn’t going through your Financial Social Work certification http://www.financialsocialwork.com/financial-social-work-certification be one way for female private practitioners to get over the hump of not being able to charge what their male colleagues are?
Dorlee,
Absolutely… As the creator of “Femonomics” in 1997 (the definition I gave it is the gender of money”), I am all too well acquainted with the issues and challenges unique to women when it comes to money.
Financial Social Work is a behavioral model designed to help social workers and non-social workers improve their own financial futures as they learn to help clients do the same.
It’s a psycho-social approach that helps everyone improve their relationship with their money that is the much needed first step to changing financial behavior in order to improve financial circumstances.
The question of why social workers don’t earn more is much less interesting than the question of why, in a profession dominated by women, do women still not earn the same amount for doing the same job as men. That is a travesty. In 2008 and 2009 I spoke with Cynthia Conley about salary negotiation for social workers. In Part 1 (http://socialworkpodcast.blogspot.com/2008/12/salary-negotiation-interview-with.html), Cynthia and I talk about why salary negotiation is an important topic for social workers and some tips for how to negotiate salaries. I ask Cynthia how realistic it is for social workers to negotiate salaries, especially since many social workers take jobs in agencies where salaries are tied to position, rather than the qualifications of the applicant. Cynthia provides some case examples of successful salary negotiation. We end our conversation with a discussion of Cynthia’s research on salary negotiation, and some ideas on where salary negotiation fits in the social work curriculum. In Part 2 (http://socialworkpodcast.blogspot.com/2009/05/salary-negotiation-for-social-workers.html) Cynthia takes us through salary negotiation from the application to the job offer.
Thanks for posting on such an important topic.
Best,
Jonathan
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and the two valuable links to your podcast interviews with Cynthia on the very topic of salary negotiation. I will definitely make a point of checking them out 🙂
It would be wonderful if by listening and following the negotiation advice offered, we were able to eliminate or at least reduce the gender inequality piece.
That said, I do think the overall salary question is also an area that merits some attention and rethinking… this profession requires a Master’s level education and continuing education that can easily cost 1 or 2K per year (typically personally covered by the social worker)…
With much appreciation and best wishes,
Dorlee
In my experience, it doesn’t matter what profession it is…women are valued less than men. And, probably more importantly, we too value ourselves less than men. For centuries old, deeply embedded cultural reasons.
The fix? A couple of ideas. First, do the internal work. Even when we wake up to implicit and explicit bias, even when we learn the fundamentals of negotiation, the lion’s share of the work we have to do to get to parity is internal. Our relationship with money, fear of conflict and gender blowback, etc. We have to unwind centuries of drinking the “Second Sex Kool-Aid.”
Second, we have to join a movement or create one, and make sure we invite plenty of men to wake up too and be foot soldiers and leaders along side. As someone pointed out, this could be in the various social work associations, but it certainly has to be institutional. Not in the form of a women’s initiative (those have often proved to be unfunded and ghettoizes the problem. Engaging leadership in strategic conversations with the goal of improving the profession as a whole, starting with parity first.
2 cents for a Sunday
PS… I just read Jonathan’s link to Cynthia’s podcast. Really excellent stuff, with one exception: Never ever suggest a range … your bargaining partner will almost always pick the bottom of the range. Rather, state your number, and back yourself up with research about the value of the postion (like Dorlee has provided here). Always make your first ask ABOVE your target salary.
At the same time, you should have prioritized your wants/requests (benefits, continuing ed, etc.) and the concessions you are willing to make to get not only the salary you deserve, but everything else you want/need to do the job well.
More than 2 cents 🙂
Hi Lisa,
Thanks so much for sharing your invaluable guidance and expertise on the topic of salary negotiation, as well as your creative ideas on what we women need to do to make a difference… between the internal work and a movement of some sort with the support of many men whom I would think would want to back us; they are our husbands, brothers, sons, fathers whom are all impacted financially [directly or indirectly] by our being underpaid…
Thanks again!
Best,
Dorlee
I think both questions, in terms of gender disparities and relative earning in our society are interesting points, and very much entwined in my view. I think I make more than peers because I ask for more. I ask for more because as a white male I was socialized to expect more. Women grow up with the same gender messages they always have: Work hard to take care of others rather than yourself, expect little, don’t complain, you’re ungrateful if you do.
I actually object to the NASW suggesting a salary range, for much the same reason that I object to our code of ethics, mandating that we do pro bono work. They inadvertently set the expectation to let other people determine your worth and ability to do pro bono, rather than encouraging social workers to consult with business experts on how to successfully negotiate salaries, and work with financial planners to see what makes sense for each individual.
Thanks so much, Mike, for sharing your thoughts and views on this topic.
I agree with you that both gender expectations and the self-fulfilling prophecy are playing a role in the pay inequity issue. Perhaps this is something that will only get resolved once there is sufficient outward [from society] and inward [internal/personal/family work] pressure that says “pay inequity – no more.”
Yes, you’re right re NASW… I think their intent had been to advocate on behalf of social workers but instead these guidelines serve as an income ceiling, if you will.
Thanks again,
Dorlee
This is very frustrating as I just secured my first job post-MSW and even after I negotiated for a salary, it is nearly $8K less than the lowest amount suggested for new MSW’s. It may be where I live (Missouri), but it is very disheartening for a new MSW to have nearly $100K in debt from school and be offered a position that pays (what I consider to be) so little.
First, good for you that you negotiated for your first job post-MSW – not all social workers do that!
Second, I’m sorry that the salary you asked/received is less than the lowest amount suggested on this chart. However, please do look at the region chart http://www.dorleem.com/2011/10/social-worker-pay-by-setting-practice.html. Your state is in the East Southern census area – and as you can see, the suggested rate is lower here vs other census areas. (This is a function of the relative cost of living in one area vs another). Therefore, when you look at the figures by region, it is quite possible that the salary you negotiated for is either right in line or above what is suggested…
Regarding your debt, I suggest you read this post http://msw.usc.edu/mswusc-blog/loan-forgiveness-programs-for-msw/ There are a number of loan forgiveness programs. You may be able to qualify to get some assistance for some of your debt.
Wishing you the best of luck in your new position!