assignment pay dcyf

Washington CPS Workers Win Significant Pay Bump

Unionized caseworkers in Washington’s Department for Children, Youth, and Families are set to receive a meaningful pay increase in 2023 after five months of bargaining — a noteworthy contract for an all-too-often beleaguered workforce. 

The pay raise is an attempt to answer the department’s workforce crisis, which mirrors a similar exodus from state-run child welfare agencies across the country. While recruitment and retention were challenging well before COVID-19, ever-heavier workloads and pandemic pressures have added to agencies’ hiring woes.

The Washington raise, bargained on behalf of members of the Washington Federation of State Employees, takes effect in July . It will amount to a 7% cost-of-living adjustment over two years. The contract will also include a 10% raise for some staff, a premium added to the base salary of caseworkers in recognition of their specialized skills and the unique job requirement. 

“We as union members exerted our power to say, ‘No you have to care about this,’” said Jeanette Obelcz, president of the Local 889 chapter of the state employees union. “The union strength has helped the state prioritize children.”

COVID-19 made it clear that child welfare work is not the same as the work performed by other state-employed social service specialists, Obelcz said. Child protection workers with obligations to conduct in-home inspections, for example, could not work remotely to avoid infection exposure during the height of the pandemic. 

In an emailed statement, Jason Wettstein, a spokesperson for the Department for Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) said if approved by the Legislature, the new contract “would provide a huge compensation boost to our employees,” and “encourage the DCYF workforce as it serves the citizens of ours state.” 

Wettstein also said the agreement would help the child welfare agency “attract and retain qualified candidates in critical roles. DCYF hopes the pay increases will better compensate our employees for the important and challenging work our agency is tasked to perform.”

A 17% raise by 2024 would increase caseworkers’ starting salary from $59,000 to $69,000. The top end of the salary range would increase from $79,900 to $93,000 by 2024, according to updated salary ranges published by the state.

The raise is deserved, Obelcz said, and still below what a social worker makes in a hospital or family court. 

Jeremy Arp, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers in Washington, said a raise for child welfare staff is always a win. But he added that it’s important to view this raise in context. Caseworkers were underpaid to start with, and the cost-of-living increase is still below the rate of inflation.

In King County for example, a two-child household must make between $85,000 and $111,000 a year before taxes to earn a living wage, according to a national calculator created by a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

The Washington raises included in the agreement tentatively ratified on Sept. 29 won’t apply to everyone at the Department for Children, Youth, and Families. The raises will go to case-carrying workers and their supervisors, but not to support staff, administrative assistants, adoption workers and after-hours staff who supervise youth housed in hotels and offices , known as “children without placement.” Union officials say they had sought to include those employees in the wage increases but were unsuccessful in reaching an agreement with the department to raise their pay.

They will, however, receive the cost-of-living adjustment, which will be a 4% pay increase in 2023 and 3% in 2024. Obelcz, who speaks for the union and works as a supervisor of caseworkers in Child Protective Services, Family Reconciliation Services, predicts there will be continued difficulty filling those roles until these workers are also granted a raise.

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“It was really disappointing. We couldn’t do this job without them,” Obelcz said of the negotiation’s final outcome. “They should be paid like we couldn’t do this job without them.”

Wettstein said the 10% raise focused “on those who perform visits in unregulated environments — such as private residences — to conduct investigations for allegations of abuse and/or neglect and assess the safety of vulnerable children.” Employees who aren’t eligible for the raise, however, can advance to caseworker and field agent positions.   Still, the raise is considered a start. The department has been under considerable staffing pressure since at least 2007, when a workload report showed the department needed more than 900 additional full-time case-bearing employees to meet its child safety mission. Rather than new hires, the Great Recession led to furloughs and budget cuts the following year, Obelcz said. “We didn’t recover from that.”

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About the Author

Donavyn coffey.

Donavyn Coffey is a freelance journalist based in Kentucky.

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General Government Bargaining Updates

Get Details on 2025-2027 Contract Negotiations here.

Previous Cycle Bargaining: 2023-2025 Contract

Congratulations! Your General Government 2023-2025 contract has ratified by members and funded by the legislature.

Your fellow public workers serving on your bargaining team fought hard for this agreement, but it wouldn’t have been possible without WFSE members in every worksite standing up, getting involved and demanding a fair contract.

Strong worksites = strong contracts. 

Note to DOC Members:  In an effort to address serious pay disparities between the same job classifications, your Corrections Bargaining team opted to bring your compensation package before an impartial arbitrator. The decision in that case and a resulting settlement is here. 

Summary of Agreement

Major goals achieved include:

• 7% across the board increases for everyone covered by the agreement over the life of the two-year contract! 4% 7/1/23 and 3% 7/1/24 (see Art. 42)
• $1,000 Retention bonus for state employees employed on July 1, 2022 who remained employed with the state on July 1, 2023 (see MOU).
• $1,000 COVID booster incentive payment. See agreement here and see cheat sheet here for details .
• 5% premium pay for all employees who work on-site in 24/7 direct care facilities (see MOU).
• Increases for specific classifications listed in Appendix S  - 185 job classes (see Appendix S)
• New and improved Assignment pays helping hundreds of our members  (see Appendix O)
• DCYF Field Operations: The 10% assignment pay for most child welfare field operations staff, which was achieved as the result of a pressure campign from DCYF members during voting , is on page 24. The relevant portion is below:
• Basic salary range plus ten percent (10%) for Social Service Specialists 2, 3, 4 and 5s who perform visits in unregulated environments, such as private residences, to conduct investigations for allegations of abuse and/or neglect to assess the safety of vulnerable children.
• Improved health care formula which will reduce employee costs.
• Raised the income limit so more employees are eligible for the flexible spending accounts. (See Art. 43)
• Basic shift premium will be increased from $1.00 per hour to $2.50 per hour (See Art. 42).
• Weekend shift premium for Registered Nurses increases from $3 per hour to $4 per hour (See Art 42).
• Risk class 7200 and 7201 employees’ annual payment increased from current $250 to $500 (see Art. 42).

Below find an expanded summary of the agreement and the full agreement.

• Agreement summary
• Full agreement.
• Article 20 revision
• MOU-vaccine booster incentive

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