Announcement #JustPay Campaign Update

The #JustPay Campaign is fighting for 800,000 human services workers across New York! As the primary funders of human services, City and State governments set levels for the wages and benefits of the human services workforce. These levels are  consistently lower than wages City and State employees in comparable positions.

The #JustPay Campaign is changing this by bringing together organizations and workers across the nonprofit human services sector. Together, we advocate for increased wages, annual cost-of-living adjustments, and improved benefits for human services workers that reflect the critical work they do every day.

As part of our efforts to organize our staff around these efforts, Urban Pathways has started a Wage Equity Committee comprised of staff across all levels of the organization to guide our participation in campaign activities.

We have good news: our advocacy is working! In Governor Hochul’s Executive Budget for the 2022-2023 Fiscal Year, she proposed a 5.4% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for human services workers on state contracts– a huge boost over last year’s COLA and larger than any other COLA increase in more than a decade.

Now, we must keep fighting to ensure the COLA makes it into the final budget and for our other asks! The human services workforce deserves a long-term structural fix for the issues they continue to face.

We invite you to join the movement to support fair wages for our staff. Here are some ways you can take action!

• Sign onto the #JustPay Campaign to show your support and receive updates.

• Call your State Assembly Member and State Senator to let them know that you support the 5.4% COLA for human services workers and want to see it in the final budget.
• Save the date for the #JustPay Rally on March 10th and join workers from Urban Pathways and other human services providers at City Hall.