The myth of organization autonomy: Social workers’ salary under the lump sum grant subvention system in Hong Kong

Adopting the principles of managerialism, the Lump Sum Grant Subvention System in Hong Kong grants service organizations autonomy to deploy resources. Using organization- and individual-level survey data, this article examines the salaries of social workers under the managerialist subvention system and investigates its impacts on frontline service professionals. We found that when service organizations adopted flexible employment terms to hire social workers, they offered lower minimum wage. Smaller organizations, which are often believed to benefit more from the system, paid social workers lower minimum wage. When individual social workers made use of flexible employment terms and switched their jobs in the welfare sector, there was no evidence that their income levels would be raised—on the contrary, switching jobs for three or more times would in fact lower their income levels. Furthermore, while the system encouraged social workers to get more involved in management work, there was no evidence that increasing work hours on management-related work would increase the income of social workers. As organizational autonomy does not necessarily result in income justice for frontline social workers, clear guidelines, supervision, and policy interventions in the management of service organizations are still needed in social service planning and delivery.