During Social Work Month, county commissioners discuss the field’s low average salaries

On March 26, Travis County Commissioners Court declared March 2024 “Social Work Month” under the proclamation “Empowering Social Workers.”

The proclamation recognized the vital contributions of social workers in shaping policy, promoting systems of equality and diversity, confronting the increasing demand for mental health services and confronting economic inequality on multiple fronts. It also noted the growing demand for social workers juxtaposed against their low average compensation and committed the county to acknowledge that “new investments and innovative policies” are needed to support its social workers as they confront a host of new challenges.

Before moving for a vote, commissioners offered Mental Health Public Defender director Melissa Shearer a quick word. Shearer, however, had more than dedications in mind. Joined by a coterie of colleagues from various divisions, Shearer asked commissioners to stand by the declaration to “support social workers so they can continue to do the life-affirming work they do.” She also cited the county’s ongoing internal compensation study led by consulting firm Segal.

“I do want to recognize – it’s in that proclamation that you just read – that the social work profession is historically underpaid. And under-funded,” she said. “I will have to bring this up again, but I will tell you that in the Segal study that it proposes that the starting salary that is currently for social workers in Travis County is $58,000. … They want to change it to $54,000 next year and end up with a starting salary of $57,000.”

“I don’t support that for a second,” Commissioner Brigid Shea said.

Shearer had previously called in before commissioners to protest an expansion of the study, stating, “What we got was a spreadsheet that included demotions, and it included pay cuts with no explanation.”

Later that session, commissioners voted unanimously to expand the Segal study with an additional $140,000 contract.

Travis County executives have confirmed that, while no current employees will lose wages as a result of the county’s ongoing study, starting salaries for some future hires will be lowered.

“I understand that nobody who is currently employed will have a reduction, but it would make it significantly harder to recruit and retain in the future if we’re starting even lower than where we are – which is already hard to recruit and retain,” Shearer said in March’s court session.

“Hopefully, the meetings are happening with Segal to straighten this out because I don’t think that any of us support reducing the salary for anyone in Travis County,” Shea said.

Leslie Gaines, division director for Family Support Services, also pit the declarations against downsizing.

“Our predecessor to me built out a career ladder of sorts, where someone can come into our program as an office specialist, work their way up to an office specialist senior or a caseworker – depending upon the role that they want to take. From a caseworker, they can become a supportive case manager,” she said. “They could even move on to become a social worker, they could become a manager. … With the Segal study, two of our positions that were part of that career ladder have been wiped out. So they have proposed getting rid of our office specialist seniors and our supportive case managers.”

Emily Seales, social services manager for the county’s Mental Health Public Defender office, emphasized the hardship already faced by county public defender social workers.

Seales walked through the rigorous social work licensing process – which includes two years of 20-hour-per-week unpaid placements during full-time graduate coursework, followed by thousands of hours of supervised practice and costly “supervision” hours – to gain independent licensure. “Any of us,” Seales remarked, “all of us – have between six to 10 years of education and intensive weekly hourlong supervision to get to where we are and to support our most vulnerable residents of Travis County.”

Seales continued, “It really saddens me that I have a lot of colleagues who can’t afford to live in Travis County. You can’t afford to live here on $53,000 a year. There are lots and lots of studies about that.”

“And, you know, high stress, high burnout, a lot of compassion fatigue and secondary trauma comes along with this job, and we all know that. But it doesn’t mean that it’s OK that those of us who are doing this hard work aren’t being supported as much as we could by policies.”

Shearer remarked on the lack of a career ladder available to professionals in the county.

“You have some folks that can take care of more minor cases, and then you’ve got upper-level cases,” she said. “But what we don’t have is a career ladder that recognizes that. Whereas attorneys, you start at a one and you can go all the way through seven. If you’re a caseworker, you’re a caseworker. Whether you have been here 16 years or two months. If you’re a social worker, you’re a social worker. Same thing.”

The court was sympathetic to the presenters’ sentiments and briefly raised a range of options to address their concerns – including making the county a “placement” site for social workers recruiting hours toward licensure or graduation, taking various measures to support social workers in workers in their initial steps towards licensure and creating programming at universities.

“My question – what would it take for us to do that?” Commissioner Ann Howard asked. Then, before anyone else could reply, she answered her own question: “It takes money.”

Photo by Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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