CUNY ISLG Study of New York’s Human Services Workforce Finds Sector Growing Rapidly, but Wages Falling Short of the Cost of Living
CUNY’s Institute for State & Local Governance study found the sector has doubled since 2000, but that real wages have stagnated compared to private sector employment—with women of color most impacted.
The study also looks at human services cost-of-living wage gaps in specific areas of the state: Albany-Schenectady, Binghamton, Buffalo-Niagara, Elmira, Glens Falls, Ithaca, Kingston, Long Island, New York City, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica-Rome, Watertown-Fort Drum and Westchester.
April 22, 2025
Media Contact:
Carla Sinclair, CUNY ISLG: carla.sinclair@islg.cuny.edu
Tess McRae, The Parkside Group: tess@theparksidegroup.com
New York, New York—This week, the Institute for State & Local Governance at the City University of New York (CUNY ISLG) released findings from a sweeping yet in-depth analysis of New York State’s human services workforce and its wages. The study is an important step in quantifying the need for investment and laying out a roadmap to a more robust, sustainable and effective public sector.
Hundreds of thousands of people across New York rely on public services funded by state and local governments, which are increasingly contracted out to nonprofit organizations, amounting to as much as $9 billion a year in New York City alone. These include community mental health and substance abuse services; family, child, and youth services; housing and shelter services; employment and workforce services; services for older adults; legal and victim assistance; and services for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities. But low wages in the sector strain the pipeline of people entering and staying in these careers, and force many workers to experience the same financial and wellbeing strains as the people they serve.
Contracted by Bring Up Minimum Pay (BUMP), an anti-poverty campaign that promotes wages that reflect the true cost of living for New York human services workers, CUNY ISLG conducted an analysis to better comprehend the breadth of the State’s human services landscape, understand the prevailing average wages of employees that provide client-contact human services contracted by the State, and explore whether human services workers experienced real wage gains over time. A second analysis then measured the gap between human services wages and the cost of living in New York. This includes area specific findings for Albany-Schenectady, Binghamton, Buffalo-Niagara, Elmira, Glens Falls, Ithaca, Kingston, Long Island, New York, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica-Rome, Watertown-Fort Drum, and Westchester.
Select findings from each analysis:
SIZE AND SCALE OF THE HUMAN SERVICES SECTOR IN NEW YORK
Human services employment has a large footprint across the state.
1 in 9 New York employees work in a human services-related industry. Human services-related employment has nearly doubled to almost a million since 2000.
Real wages for human services workers remained stagnant over the past two decades.
Workers in human services-related industries earned about $40,000 in 2023 compared to the statewide average of $90,000—up about 3 percent versus 12 percent, respectively, since 2000. Importantly, real wages for Home Health Care Services, the largest human services industry, declined by as much as 6 percent since before the pandemic.
Women of color, many of whom are immigrants, make up the vast majority of the human services workforce.
Home health aides, nursing assistants, and childcare workers—the occupations that make up the majority of the sector and are mostly held by women of color—have the lowest wages in the sector and, as a result, experience higher rates of poverty and public benefit utilization than other individuals across New York.
HUMAN SERVICES WAGES VS. COST OF LIVING
More than half of human services workers across New York State earn wages that are below the cost of living.
Over 80 percent of human services worker households with children earn below the cost of living.
Human services workers are underpaid by at least $20,000 per worker each year.
The cost of living for a single adult New Yorker is about $60,000 per worker per year—or about $27-$29/hour on a full-time basis. This is much higher than typical wages of about $40,000 per year for workers in a human services-related industry.
Wages for the human services workforce wages are below the cost of living throughout New York State.
Upstate New York is more affordable relative to the New York City area, but generally, there is still a gap between the cost of living and the wages human services workers earn throughout the state.
“Appropriately compensating the people who provide healthcare, childcare, services for our elders, substance use services and more isn't just common sense. It’s fundamental to the stability and wellbeing of every New Yorker, and to making sure these critical jobs and services are robust and sustainable for years to come.”
“When we invest in those who care for our communities, we invest in a healthier, stronger and more equitable New York State,” said Dean Fuleihan, CUNY ISLG Senior Fellow. “Appropriately compensating the people who provide healthcare, childcare, services for our elders, substance use services and more isn't just common sense. It’s fundamental to the stability and wellbeing of every New Yorker, and to making sure these critical jobs and services are robust and sustainable for years to come.”
“To anyone who’s worked in or around human services, it's clear there is a wage gap compared to the private sector despite the work being equally skilled and important. But until now, we did not have the data to quantify it,” said Stephanie Rosoff, Associate Research Director at CUNY ISLG. “This first-of-its-kind statewide analysis uses multiple industry-level, occupational-level and labor statistics indicators to both quantify and contextualize the economic state of New York’s human services sector, the first step in ensuring the wages catch up to this quickly growing industry.”
“To anyone who’s worked in or around human services, it's clear there is a wage gap compared to the private sector despite the work being equally skilled and important. But until now, we did not have the data to quantify it.”
“Human service workers have a profound impact on communities across New York State and help keep New York running, yet too many of these essential workers are underpaid and left behind,” said Michelle Yanche, Chief Executive Officer of Good Shepherd Services and a member of the BUMP campaign. “This new CUNY ISLG study makes it clear: wages have not kept pace with the rising cost of living, forcing workers into the same hardships they work every day to alleviate. Raising wages isn’t just about fairness — it’s about investing in the health, safety, and future of New Yorkers. We are proud to stand with the BUMP campaign to push for a stronger, more equitable future for all."
"ISLG's new analysis underscores the important role the human services workforce plays in combating poverty and meeting the needs of New Yorkers statewide, yet chronic disinvestment has left the vast majority of these professionals earning below the cost of living," said Raysa S. Rodriguez, Executive Director of Citizens' Committee for Children of New York and a member of the BUMP campaign. "Increasing minimum pay is crucial to ensuring children and families receive the essential services this workforce provides. It is time we put in place lasting, systemic solutions to address the wage gap experienced in this field."
Closing this gap is costly. But the benefits of increasing wages are clear: higher wages would help retain skilled workers, attract new talent and ultimately improve the quality and sustainability of services for New Yorkers.
Forthcoming analyses from CUNY ISLG will provide deeper insight into how increasing wages for the human services workforce would impact individuals, their communities and government—that is, comparing the cost of increasing wages against savings to government, and the benefits accrued to individuals and their communities because of higher incomes. Stay tuned for these and other analyses on how New York—and other states—can better support the people and services that keep our communities running.
WEBINAR: Join us on May 19 from 1-2:30 pm for a presentation and discussion of our findings, open to government agencies, community-based organizations, and the general public. Please register here, and reach out to Carla Sinclair at carla.sinclair@islg.cuny.edu for any questions.