California Social Service Workers: Underpaid and In-Demand

Recruiters in California are dealing with a huge problem currently. There is a gigantic homeless problem in the state. Tent cities have long been around in areas like Skid Row, but now most areas of California (LA and San Francisco in particular) are experiencing tremendous upticks in homeless people.

While there are many reasons speculated as to why the homeless problem in California has grown (the lax attitude towards open drug use and crime, low wages and high cost of living, great benefits for the unemployed and MICA populations) the fact remains, California is struggling with homelessness.

So, it makes sense that there should be a huge demand for Social Service workers to combat this problem.

The state is using hundreds of millions of dollars every year via government run and non-profit run agencies . These agencies and programs are designed to take care of the homeless in California. Exactly how they are supposed to take care of the homeless is beyond the scope of this article, but what is interesting is that California is finding it so hard to hire new case workers.

Let’s take a look at that. It’s interesting for this blog because, if you’re recruiting in California and you are not with an agency that handles Tech, Entertainment, or Law, then you’re going to be dealing in the ever growing social service sector which accounts for billions of dollars of government funding every year.

What are These Social Workers Doing?

Alright, so the term social workers is too broad a term. For the lay person, it means anyone who does what exactly? For those who have worked in social service staffing they know that this term can mean anything:

A Licensed Master Social Worker who provides counseling to:

• Abused Women
• Mentally Ill 
• Mentally Ill Chemical (Drug) Abusers: MICA
• Foster Families
• Homeless
• Homeless and Drug Addicted
• Senior Citizens
• Immigrants
• Women of Color
• Trans-Persons

Or is it a case worker who is responsible for making sure that their clients sign up for and receive government benefits (free housing, food benefit cards, emergency cash debit cards). Those clients might be:

• Single Mothers
• Children in Foster Care
• Immigrants
• Homeless
• The Trans-Community
• Victims of Domestic Violence
• Persons of Color
• Ex-Offenders Upon Release

There is such a wide spectrum that we should narrow down exactly what the term is used to describe in California.

Currently, California is seeking Case Workers or Case Managers to do outreach for the states uncontrollable homeless population.

In an effort to aid in housing the vulnerable during Covid, California allocated millions of dollars to rent hotels for the many homeless. In addition to this, they provided Non-Profits with millions upon millions to administer mental health counseling (yet another type of role—Licensed Mental Health Counselors).

The case mangers were the front line. They were the people who were to do outreach and make contact with the homes and make sure that they understood the offer: Free Hotel, Food, and Services. Then the case managers would pass their info over to the organizations and non-profits running the system.

In layman’s terms, a Case Worker goes out and finds homeless people and then funnels them into the non-profit system. They do paperwork on them so that the government can reimburse the non-profit for the hotels and other issues.

Case Worker Jobs: Easy to Get, Difficult To Do

The job of a case manager is easy to get. That’s why so many people who go to colleges study Social Work. It’s one of the only fields bedsides Nursing and other related Medical work where you are guaranteed a job after college.

The difference between Nursing and Social Work is the pay. Nurses command enormous salaries. LA and NYC Travel Nurses make over $100 an hour. Case managers make slightly above minimum wage in most states. In some locales, experienced case mangers might make more—in areas such as New York and Washington DC where there are huge numbers of people who are receiving benefits.

Cities with the largest populations on government benefits (Food Stamps, Government Supported Housing, etc…) tend to have more pay opportunities. Though even in cities such as Chicago and New York were millions of people who are receiving government benefits, case managers are not paid that well.

So, why exactly are people studying Social Services in college?

Well, because, as we’ve mentioned there are always jobs. More and more people are becoming recipients of social welfare programs in the US, and they all use case managers.

And unlike many other careers and professions, there is very little difficulty in finding work if you have a degree. Ask any random recruiter who works in the non-profit sector, and you will hear the same story. Anyone with a social service degree can find work in less than a week.

This is because non-profits and social service agencies are all funded by the government. They don’t suffer from the same difficulties that corporate companies do: having to make sales, maintain profit, etc…

The big problem with working as a case manager is that the work is unpleasant. For instance, in the article cited above, they discuss that case workers will be spit on, cursed at, attacked.

So, you can see that this line of work is highly troublesome. The people who go into this line of work do so partly, because they know that the work is so easy to find. However, it’s dangerous and not as highly paid as Nurses.

What Sort of Education and Experience Do Case Workers Need in California?

Case Workers do not even need a College Degree. In many cases high school degrees (or even a GED) is sufficient enough. Many large non-profits hire teenagers right out of high school.

Case Workers don’t need a college degree to do case work, but sometimes it does help. That is why you see many places require Bachelor level degrees or even Master level degrees. The secret that many outside of the Social Service world don’t know is that this requirement is all tired into government funding.

Non-Profits make more money in government funding for people with different degrees. So, it helps to have more advanced degrees.

Licensing is a separate issue, which is not a degree.

Why Does California Need To Hire Recruiters?

Simple, the pay for case workers is very low. In most places it’s slightly above minimum wage.  You can check out the ads online from places like Craigslist, Indeed, Zip-recruiter, Idealist, or on a government website.

In this case the case workers are being paid around $16 an hour. That’s well below the cost of living in most American cities, but far below the cost of living in California.

The problem, as you can see, is that the salary that the non-profits are paying their low level, on the ground case mangers is very low. Many of these people who work as case mangers can therefore not afford to live in LA or San Francisco without themselves being on benefits (which is not unusual for the sector).

However, such a low wage is not attractive to people. In other sectors of the non-profit social service world, recruiters will not find it hard to attract people to low skilled, low paying case manager jobs if they are only dealing with children, or geriatrics (elderly), or populations such as mentally disabled.

However, working with MICA and Homeless populations is very stressful. The executives at the non-profits and the higher level administrative staff make quite comfortable salaries (all of this is public knowledge when reviewing their Non-Profit financial discloses).

Who Makes the Big $$$: Hint, it’s not Case Workers?

The big money in the non-profit world is found in the executives who run the groups. They routinely make 6 figure salaries, even in the smallest non-profits.

Case mangers are seen as disposable daily, hourly workers to the non-profit sector. There is an endless supply of new grads who can fill these roles. And so, the executives who run the non-profits and their friends in government are not concerned.

One only has to look at the infamous Thrive program in NYC where journalists, politicians, policy analysts, and newspapers all over the city investigated what happened. In that case, the former Mayor’s wife was involved in one of the most troublesome mental health programs in the city. Especially when one considers the violence that escalated during and after.

Recruiters can only work with the budgets that the non-profits and government executives provide them. If the non-profit wants to spend as little as possible on the frontline workers and keep the lions share for the C.E.O’s and other staff, then recruiters will continue to find it difficult to find and keep hard working case managers.

Recent scandals in cities such as New York show how CEO’s and administrative higher ups make millions and also indulge in parties and other questionable spending. And in California, there are cases of Non-Profits being involved in scandals such ––many of these Non-Profits were supposed to assist the homeless but were instead allegedly out for fraud and profit.