Illinois Partners latest research report centers the voices and experiences of more than 850 frontline community-based health and human service workers; their struggle to make a living wage, and their commitment to their clients and communities.
In this report, “Worker Well-being is Community Well-Being: Why the Human Service Workforce needs a living wage,” alongside extremely compelling data, we offer a missing piece to this common narrative—the voices and real-life experiences of these essential workers, in their own words.
Their words provide the framework for an honest and, at times, scathing indictment of the way our government and society continually undervalue community-based human service workers. They shed light on just how few of our highly skilled and educated workers make a living wage and what surviving day-to-day looks like for those on the frontlines of caring for our communities.
When asked why they stay in their jobs, the answer was almost universally the same—they love their work and their clients. So while this report also tells the story of a resilient and committed workforce, a key takeaway bears repeating: Resilience doesn’t pay the bills.
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Read the full report
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