CityAndStateNY.com
April 4, 2022
Celebrated, yet ignored
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URING GOV. KATHY HOCHUL’S State of the State address at the beginning of the year, she made an announcement that the state’s nonprofit human services had been looking forward to for over a decade. The governor proposed $500 million in the fiscal year 2023 budget for cost-of-living adjustments, also known as COLAs, for human services workers’ salaries. If included in the final budget agreement, the state’s nonprofit human services workers would finally get a raise after then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo took out the COLAs, which had been a legislative requirement, from the budget during his tenure. These employees, who often work with homeless people, senior citizens, families and children, among others, have had their raises routinely stripped out of the state budget. Nonprofit leaders had hoped Hochul would make a change from her predecessor’s austerity policy. “Having the governor include that COLA, which is a 5.4% COLA, is huge,” said Michelle Jackson, the executive director of the Human Services Council, which strongly advocated for the COLA to be part of the budget. “And the Senate and the Assembly have also included that in their one-house (budgets), so that’s a very huge investment that we’re excited about.” William Gettman Jr., CEO of Northern Rivers Family of Services, which provides education systems, mental health clinics and career training for 25 counties across New York state, said the announcement was good news for his 1,400-employee nonprofit. “Our sector has been woefully underfunded in the past,” he said. “The prior administration did not, in my opinion, value the not-for-profit sector despite the fact that we’ve stepped up to do an incredible amount of additional work on behalf of the state. The COLA is critical to keep the viability of our sector going.” Both Jackson and Gettman said hiring new employees has been difficult because of the low wages over the past 10 years. Gettman said his nonprofit has had to compete with companies like Amazon in order to attract workers, and one-quarter of his current employees have a second job, while others have three jobs. A recent study by
New York has not given raises to the human services workers who helped the state get through the pandemic.
the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School found that “roughly two-thirds of all full-time human services workers had 2019 earnings below the city’s near-poverty threshold”. A 2020 report from the center found that while human services grew “two-and-a-half times as fast as overall private job growth in New York City since 1990,” its average yearly wage was $32,700, making it the second-lowest industry wage in the city, just ahead of restaurant workers. Last month, the Human Services Council and Nonprofit New York teamed up to
By Megan McGibney
organize a #JustPay rally outside City Hall, demanding an increase in nonprofit wages, and about 1,000 supporters attended. Although there was optimism about the $500 million COLA being included in this year’s budget, there was still some hesitation about whether human services workers will get more raises in the future. “I think all of this is great,” Housing Works CEO Charles King told City & State. “The real question is whether this is a one-shot and then we go back to not seeing additional increases going forward.”
SUPPORTIVE HOUSING NETWORK OF NEW YORK
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