THE ISSUE
New York State relies on the nonprofit sector to meet the health and human service needs of New Yorkers in cities and counties across the state. Despite this important charge, the wages of nonprofit workers across New York State do not reflect the true cost of living. Human services employment in New York State has almost doubled since 2000 - accounting for 12% of total employment. However, human services wages have remained virtually stagnant, even while all private employment wages have grown by 12%.
Many nonprofit workers are living in poverty while they work daily to meet the needs of families and communities to not only combat poverty, but promote economic mobility, good health, and well-being.
These poverty wages are primarily impacting women and people of color - the majority of the nonprofit workforce.
Poverty wages drive down nonprofit recruitment and retention, which in turn limits access to services and disrupts the community service infrastructure. Approximately 82% of surveyed New York nonprofits report hiring challenges, with 69% of nonprofits experiencing vacancies in programs and delays in service delivery. Without a fully staffed nonprofit sector, our most vulnerable individuals, families, and communities, as well as our state and local economic recovery, are at risk.
WHAT IS BUMP?
Bring Up Minimum Pay (BUMP) is an anti-poverty initiative.
BUMP has a simple mission: a nonprofit wage floor that reflects the true cost of living.
BUMP advocates for system change on behalf of nonprofit workers who are doing work for New York counties, cities, and the state, but are not funded at the true cost of living.
Our goal is to combat poverty wages in the sector through legislative action to align nonprofit services base wages and annual wage adjustments tied to the true cost of living; thereby setting a wage floor below which no wage should fall.
THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM
Government contracts, the primary revenue for nonprofits, do not fund wages at the true cost of living.
BUMP complements Annual Cost Of Living Adjustments (COLAs) by addressing the underlying baseline pay deficiency and embedding an annualized increase to maintain wages at a minimum of a true cost of living. When this legislation is passed, state, city and county compliance would be required.
CALL-TO-ACTION
A Livable Base Wage for the Nonprofit Services Workforce
Pass legislation that will set a long-term government commitment to fund and maintain wages at the true cost of living for nonprofit services workers.
Ready to learn more? Download our one pager here!