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Why we gave a big raise to the people — mostly POC women — who work at our shelter • Minnesota Reformer [1]
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Date: 2024-09-12
Financial stability ought to be a right, not a privilege — for all of us.
That’s why we’ve increased the salaries of the people who work for People Serving People, the state’s largest family homeless shelter.
The costs of operating a homeless shelter like ours are subsidized by the blood and treasure of our staff, especially frontline workers, who are frequently most reflective of the populations we serve: women and people of color. This is directly rooted in the history of racism and sexism undervaluing women of color.
These same staff, in turn, are often the ones that communities rely on in moments of struggle.
When I became the CEO of People Serving People, I could have hidden behind the history and said that I haven’t contributed to this inequity or blamed the county and state government, but that would be a lie. We should, and we must, collectively own our part of the mess. As a shelter, the part we have played is hiding the true cost of providing shelter by underpaying staff, and, therefore, making our staff invisible.
I am all too familiar with what “invisible” feels like. I was in foster care and have experienced homelessness. I, too, have done my best to “make it work,” as so many others do daily to survive. These experiences have made me who I am and have given me the chance to be in the position to write this piece, but I do not want others to have to pay the same toll.
That is why People Serving People has changed our compensation strategy from one based on “market salary” to one that reflects the market costs of living in Hennepin County.
We determine market costs with a simple formula: 33% for rent, 33% for child care for one infant, and the remaining 33% for everything else.
This equates to a minimum pay rate for every full-time staff member of $25 per hour or an annualized salary of $52,000. Our compensation changes increased pay for a little over half of our staff, 68% of whom are women and 58% who are people of color. Pay equity is a racial and gender justice issue.
While PSP is a nonprofit, this is not an act of charity. This is an investment in the people we serve and our work. Paying a thriving wage provides benefits far beyond the individual level — when our staff is thriving, they are better positioned to support our guests in achieving stability and self-sufficiency. We see this with greater staff retention and expect greater economic benefits the longer this is implemented.
While there is still much to do, I ask our elected leaders, policymakers and peers in the housing space to stop asking staff to continue to pay a pound of flesh. The faster we can do right by our staff, the faster those in power must confront that this is just what it takes to operate a housing justice organization that includes its staff as part of its mission. We can do good and do well.
In the meantime, if they won’t pay you a thriving wage, we still have a few openings.
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