Our Advocacy in 2021 - 22
Our Executive Director Jen Muzia is deeply involved in the local and regional coalitions and advocacy networks working to transform social service programs and change systems.
This work includes but is not limited to:
In her role as Co-Chair of the Seattle Human Services Coalition (SHSC), Executive Director Jen Muzia has been actively involved in a wage equity study analyzing the human services sector, conducted in partnership with the University of Washington and covered in these articles in Crosscut and Publicola.
The study, funded by the City of Seattle, shares with little surprise to anyone that nonprofit workers are underpaid. This study helped quantify that disparity by comparing work across industries. As SHSC has shared, “The market analysis reveals that nonprofit human services workers make 37% less than other workers with identical skill sets working in other sectors of the economy. It will take a wage increase of 43-59% to correct the gap found by the market analysis alone, with the job evaluation analysis pointing to an even greater wage disparity.”
A passionate advocate for wage equity, Jen has met with the City, County, and legislators in Olympia. She also met with funders to share insights and discuss ways foundations can be a part of creating parity across fields.
Jen shares: “Human service providers are professionals who provide a critical service. They deserve to be compensated for their education, expertise, and level of responsibility. Our colleagues perform an incredibly important role; every day they connect with community members to help them access food, housing, mental health services, substance use counseling, case management, and much more.
Our city is in a state of crisis with rates of homelessness at an all-time high. We urgently need the skills of dedicated and experienced human service providers to help address this crisis. However, many organizations are struggling to hire and retain staff when wages are far below what it costs to live in this city. Folks are leaving a field they love and have been trained for because they need to find higher paying jobs to survive.
This means that many organizations are not staffed at the level they need to be to provide critical services. Our community needs more services, not less, and lack of services compounds the challenges we are facing across our city. To have the level of services we need to address the homelessness crisis, we must have the capacity to invest in our staff teams at a level that recognizes their education, experience, and responsibility.”
Nonprofits are funded through a variety of sources, including government contracts, philanthropic grants, businesses, faith community, and individuals. The make-up of a nonprofits revenues will look different with some nonprofits being largely funded by government contracts and others through individual donors. As a community this is important to understand that we all are part of the solution to investing in human services, and ultimately our community. To have the financial capacity to invest in our staff we need to increase revenues from all sources. Long term we must invest in policies that increase investment in critical services including housing, mental and physical health, substance use, case management, and food access.