The week of May 16-20 is Caring Force Spirit Week! We are wearing our gold Providers’ Council “The Caring Force” T-shirts to show support for the Council’s Fair Pay for Comparable Work Bill.
This bill would eliminate the pay disparity that exists between the salaries of human services workers employed by community-based human service providers and state employees holding similar job titles who perform similar work.
Similar job titles and roles exist for individuals employed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and those employed at private, community-based human services nonprofits, but the rate of pay is often drastically different — sometimes by up to 30 percent.
The Commonwealth is the largest purchaser of human services from community-based human services nonprofits, But due to this salary disparity, it is becoming increasingly difficult for community-based organizations to recruit and retain qualified workers in the sector, which contains nearly 180,000 jobs.
Without a solution to the workforce crisis in the human services sector, an increasing number of human services jobs in our state will go unfilled and programs may close, leading to a loss of services for vulnerable Massachusetts residents.
If passed, this legislation would set a schedule to fully eliminate the pay disparity between state workers and those employed by private, community-based human services nonprofits who are doing similar work. It would also this pay disparity no later than July 1, 2027.