Who Cares for New York? Wages, Human Service Workers, and Affordability

Policymakers, nonprofit leaders, and researchers examine what it would mean to raise wages for NY's lowest-paid human services workers.

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New York is at an inflection point. As the affordability crisis deepens, City and State policymakers have increasingly turned to the nonprofit human services sector to deliver solutions, from childcare to home health care. Yet the workers powering these programs remain among the most severely underpaid.

A recent analysis from the CUNY Institute for State & Local Governance (ISLG) found that one in nine New York employees work in a human services-related industry, and that 80% earn under $40,000 a year—roughly $20,000 below the cost of living. The consequences are cascading: financially precarious families, reduced economic activity in communities, and thinning pipelines into critical care fields the city and state are counting on to grow. Raising the wage floor for these workers could make a big impact on both workers and our communities at large.

Hosted by CUNY ISLG, this panel features policy and labor leaders Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO and Executive Director, FPWA; Henry Garrido, Executive Director, DC 37; Melanie Hartzog, President & CEO, NY Foundling; and Cecilia Low-Weiner, Senior Research Associate, CUNY ISLG discussing what it would mean to raise wages for New York's lowest-paid human services workers: the tradeoffs, the mechanisms, and the path forward.

Timing Note: Complimentary continental breakfast will be served in the lobby from 8:30 amto 9:30 am. The panel will begin at 9:30 am and last until 11 am.

For the livestream, sign up on Zoom.