‘You’re going to keep seeing us.’ Underpaid and overworked, KY social workers rally.
Nearly 50 Department for Community Based Services social workers gathered on the steps of the Kentucky Capitol Tuesday morning, some carrying signs, all demanding an increase in pay and more support measures to help stem what has become a mass exodus of workers that has left an already beleaguered workforce at wits’ end.
“We’re not asking for a lot. We’re not asking to be overcompensated,” Shawnte West, a social worker in Jefferson County, said to cheers. “We want to be able to take care of our families and not need food stamps, not need the same services we’re providing to our clients.”
One worker held a sign on which she had written in marker, “Does entering a home known to have guns and drug trafficking qualify for hazardous pay??? Not if you’re a social worker.” Another worker held aloft the scrawled question, “What’s the backup plan when there are NO social workers left?”
To lawmakers, West said, “You’re going to keep seeing us. We’re demanding that we get what we’re asking for.”
In a state agency notorious for its low pay, untenable caseload volumes and high turnover rates, a vicious cycle compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, asking for raises is not a new plight, but it’s one that has largely gone unheeded. Lorraine Wilbur, a social service specialist who works full time in Central Office, hasn’t gotten a raise during her time working for DCBS. To make ends meet, she worked part-time at Macy’s for six years until the retailer laid her off during the pandemic.
“The majority of the time I have worked for the Cabinet, I have had a part-time job,” Wilbur said after the rally. ”There are Master’s level clinicians who can make what we make at Costco. At this point it is such a crisis that we have to take the time to advocate for ourselves.”
West, along with Katy Coleman and Devin Reul who also work for DCBS in Jefferson County, took stories like these to a meeting with Gov. Andy Beshear earlier in the morning. They outlined their workforce demands, chiefly raises and hazardous pay compensation.
“We talked to the governor and let him know that pay raises are a priority,” West assured the crowd.
Beyond pay, several DCBS social workers at Tuesday’s event noted the severe workforce shortages, saying the agency had reportedly lost 600 workers so far this year — roughly 14% of the total agency workforce. That has led not only to job vacancies that have remained unfilled, but to existing social workers taking on more cases than they can manage across increasingly greater distances. Multiple social workers said either they or their colleagues currently have cases as far as an hour away from the county in which they work because those counties, too, are struggling with worker shortages.
Of the meeting, Beshear’s office said in a statement, “The governor listened intently to their needs and ideas during this morning’s meeting and wants to address as many of their concerns as possible [and he] believes our social workers are wonderful, hardworking public servants and his admiration is dedicated to supporting them.”
The mobilization to publicly beg lawmakers to fund pay bumps for frustrated workers performing essential services is not currently unique to social workers, whose starting salary is around $34,000. The Kentucky Nurses Association released survey findings in late October that showed more than two-thirds of the 850 polled licensed nurses reported high levels of burnout, fueled in part by low pay. A quarter said it was “likely” or “extremely likely” they would leave their current position in the next three months, and 16% said they were likely to leave the profession all together, according to the survey results.
Like with DCBS, Kentucky Nurses Association Board President Donna Meador said the pandemic has pushed nursing shortages to a “crisis level.” To help stem the hemorrhaging workforce, KNA asked the state for $100 million in federal pandemic money.
Kentucky State Police is also struggling. In a news conference earlier this month, Beshear announced his next two-year budget request would include a $15,000 boost in the starting salary of troopers, bumping them up to $55,000 a year, as well as an $8,000 raise in starting salary for dispatchers, nudging them up to $32,000.
“Both KSP troopers and dispatchers deserve the respect and the stability that comes from competitive wages,” Beshear said on Nov. 9. “And none of them should have to have a second jobs, with what they do for us, to provide for their family.”
DCBS social workers want a piece of that pie, especially now that Kentucky is tracking for a $1 billion budget surplus.
“We took a lot of hits when the budget was short,” West told the crowd in front of the Capitol. “Now that there’s a surplus, there is money to take care of us. And we’re here to demand that we get a portion of that. We have been very loyal public servants. It’s time that they take care of us.”
This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 3:57 PM.
