Low Pay for Social Workers is a Human Rights Violation, and Social Work Professors Must Help to Change It

Abstract

Despite an unending commitment to social justice and equality, social work remains among the lowest paid professions in the United States (U.S.). This issue ultimately rises to the level of an economic human rights violation for both practitioners and their clients. Furthermore, since social workers consist of among the highest rates of women and women of color in the field compared to all other professions, this raises additional questions about human rights violations related to the gender, racial, and ethnic inequalities. Social work professors, who typically make much higher salaries than social work practitioners, have a moral responsibility to raise awareness and advocate for higher pay for practitioners, through both their research and advocacy. This article describes how increases in pay for social workers could simultaneously improve pay for women and women of color and improve the level of services provided to the disadvantaged populations to whom social workers are of service. Additional suggestions are made on what specifically social work professors can do to help increases wages for practitioners and therefore increase human rights.