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New Study Provides Better Information on Social Work Salaries

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is concerned with social work salary information from Payscale that is being quoted by The Huffington Post and other news organizations. The NASW has a new Social Workers Compensation Study that offers a fuller and fairer depiction of what social workers earn.
 
“Payscale limited its reporting to social workers with bachelor’s degrees,” says Tracy Whitaker, DSW, ACSW, director of the NASW’s Center for Workforce Studies and Social Work Practice. “And, while a bachelor’s is a professional degree, social workers often get additional certifications, master’s degrees, and doctorates. In fact, social workers are some of the best educated professionals in the nation.”
 
The NASW study included data from social workers with master’s degrees.  According to the NASW study, the median annual salary for social workers with less than five years experience is $43,700; those with 10 to 19 years experience earn a median salary of $52,000; and those with 20 to 29 years experience earn a median annual salary of $60,000.
 
Payscale, which only included social workers with bachelor’s degrees, listed the starting median salary for a social worker at $33,400 and $41,600 for a midcareer social worker.
 
However, the NASW is pushing for higher salaries for social workers to compensate them for the wide range of services they provide and the education they must earn to do their jobs. The NASW supports Congressional passage of the Dorothy I. Height and Whitney M. Young Social Worker Reinvestment Act, which would secure federal and state investment in the social work profession.
 
Social work is one of the fast growing fields in the United States, according to Labor Department data. And a May U.S. News and World Report article said medical and public health social work will be one of the 50 best careers in 2010 and beyond.
 
“Judgments on the monetary value of certain careers are always subjective,” Whitaker says. “Thank goodness many people continue to choose life-affirming careers such as social work despite the naysayers.”

— Source: National Association of Social Workers