Low wages are a major factor contributing to the DSP workforce crisis. The current issue of Policy Research Brief uses publicly available data from the National Core Indicators® (NCI)-IDD Staff Stability Survey to compare wages of direct support professionals (DSPs) to what people earn in other similar professions. It also puts them in context by comparing DSP wages to living wages – the cost of living based on typical expenses that meet minimum standards of living.

DSP wages have been consistently below wages of other comparable professions. Not only has the gap between living wages and DSP wages not gotten smaller in recent years, with the onset of the pandemic it saw a jump. For a family with one working adult and one child (which makes up a large proportion of DSPs), the median gap went from being $13.00 per hour below living wage in 2019 to $17.64 per hour below living wage in 2020. Such gaps between what people need to earn to live and what they actually earn are not sustainable.

Join us as we explore DSP wages and policy recommendations that must be addressed. ICI's Julie Bershadsky will moderate and discussants will include Dorothy Hiersteiner from HSRI and Mary Lou Bourne from Management Support Solutions.

Registration is free but required.

Sponsored by Institute on Community Integration.