' 9 i..1495, '** " ^: 1-1 * -"*;:;- '* I~i, - '' rL; I-r - I B 1,324,634 Pos t; nAs \ Soc:i W cT,<. j I — IN5\j IVA,, 46SO 1,M S 5 I POSITIONS IN 3OCIAL WORK A STUDY OF THE NUMBER, SALARIES, EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL WORKERS IN UNOFFICIAL SOCIAL AGENCIES IN NEW YORK CITY, BASED UPON AN INVESTIGATION MADE BY FLORENCE WOOLSTON FOR THE NEW YORK SCHOOL OF PHILANTHROPY AND THE INTERCOLLEGIATE BUREAU OF OCCUPATIONS BY EDWARD T. DEVINE MARY VAN KLEECK COMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATION PUBLISHED BY THE NEW YORK SCHOOL OF PHILANTHROPY UNITED CHARITIES BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY FEBRUARY, 1916 COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE NEW YORK SCHOOL OF PHILANTHROPY INTRODUCTION A PROFESSION IN THE MAKING INTRODUCTION A PROFESSION IN THE MAKING The social spirit in America has expressed itself variously as organized charity, housing and public health movements, settlements, municipal and social research, experiments with new criminal procedure and prison reform, playgrounds and recreation centers, religious and medical social service, industrial commissions and public welfare departments. These diversified and yet, in essential aim and motive, closely allied activities, have given rise to a new vocation, to a profession in the making. This calling, from the very nature of the work to be done in it, and from the character of its leaders, makes an extraordinary appeal to the missionary spirit of the young men and women in and out of the universities who have seen the vision of a new social order in which poverty, crime and disease, if not wholly abolished, will certainly be vastly diminished, and will not exist, at any rate, as the result of social neglect, as the result of bad traditions which enlightenment can end, or of obsolete institutions which the laws can change. These allied activities of the new social reform have caught up and, as it were, assimilated many of the old-established agencies for relieving individual distress and misfortune. The hospital is no longer merely a refuge for the sick but also a health center. From it radiate prevention and educational influences as important as the bedside ministrations to the sick. The orphan asylum is no longer a place to keep a few orphans alive, but a child-welfare station, in which the whole problem of organizing the educational, moral, economic and recreational life of the child may be studied, in some respects even better than in the necessarily more complex normal home life. The relief society is no longer solely to supply food and fuel and clothing to the "worthy poor," but is to improve their condition, to re-establish their earning capacity and independence. For these reasons, the men and women who are employed in relief societies, children's institutions, and hospitals find themselves wholly akin to 5 6 INTRODUCTION the social workers who are securing new housing and compensation laws, promoting instructive nursing and medical inspection, or revising a discredited penal system. A few of the older agencies and a few that are mediaeval in spirit, even if recently founded, have been left behind in this new alignment of social forces, but speaking generally it is certainly true that the so-called charitable activities of the country are faced in the forward direction; that their desire is not merely to help individuals, but to improve the conditions of life; that they think of themselves as social, educational and preventive agencies, and would have no sympathy with but only abhorrence for the notion that it is desirable to maintain a class of "deserving poor" in order that there may be some one on whom to lavish our bounty. The change is revolutionary and complete. Almost as a matter of course workers in philanthropic activities now sympathize with wage-earners in all lawful, and perhaps in some technically unlawful, attempts to improve their condition. They recognize the absolute necessity of protecting and whenever possible raising general standards of living. They oppose child labor and a seven-day week. They are apt to go beyond labor unions themselves in favoring minimum wage laws. They have worked for compensation legislation and are getting ready for sickness and old age insurance. The very tasks in which they are engaged compel a generous sympathy with all who suffer from bad social conditions and a righteous indignation against those who profit from social injustice and inequitable laws, customs and prejudices. The things which social workers do in common; their difficulties, obstacles, and discouragements; their purposes, ideals and achievements, unite them in a common family in spite of great differences in their training and education, in their specific duties, in their relations with their respective employers, in the extent to which they have independent professional responsibility on their own shoulders, in the permanence of their tenure and even in the compensation for similar service. Such a consciousness of common interests has usually come in the past either through some quasi-legal monopoly such as exists in the practice of law and medicine, or through a class guild or trade union movement. Social work has no protection of academic, professional degree, or public examination, and it has no union or association to protect the economic interests of its members. What improvements have been made in salaries, in INTRODUCTION 7 professional training, and in the conditions of the work,-and progress in all these directions has been very substantial-have been due mainly to the efforts of directors and officers of the social agencies, to their natural and mainly unconscious competition with one another, and to the independent development of professional education in this field in or in affiliation with the universities. The time has come when social workers themselves, not through trade union or monopoly methods, but through methods now considered appropriate and rational in other professions, may advantageously give more attention to the question of thorough preparation for their chosen career. As a contribution to an understanding of the present situation the Intercollegiate Bureau of Occupations and the School of Philanthropy have made this study of present positions in social work in New York City. From the organizations and from individual social workers the facts have been gleaned in regard to salaries, education and training, length of service and duties of those who are employed in the voluntary social agencies. Not including here any who are engaged in the public service,-although those who are engaged in social welfare departments should, of course, be included in any complete survey-there are some four thousand men and women so employed. Many of them receive exceedingly small salaries, and many of them, not always necessarily the same ones, have so little general education, and so little special training, that their presence can be accounted for only by the absence of effective competition or by very low standards in their employers. In many instances the societies could well afford to increase salaries if competent and expert workers could then be found to accept them. With improved service they could raise a larger budget far more easily than they can secure their present income with the quality of service which they are in position to render. It is evident that not highly trained specialists in a hundred different specialized fields, but thoroughly trained experts in the broader aspects of social work are most in demand and that as such available experts increase in number, some of those now employed must necessarily give way. This is in the public interest and especially in the interest of those who need relief or service and for whose sake the agencies came into existence. As the requirements of social work are raised, professional training becomes more necessary and salaries must be 8 INTRODUCTION correspondingly increased to cover this cost of preparation. This is just what is taking place. The professional school not only serves those who enter it, by giving them a grounding in the principles, methods and history of social work; it serves also by a selective process the agencies which engage social workers. There are those who are especially fitted for social work. It is a part of the task of the professional school to discover such persons and to persuade them to enter it. There are others who, whatever their gifts and fitness for other occupations, are not fitted for social work. It is the part of the professional school to help them at an early stage to discover their limitations and thus to save a waste of their time and resources, while saving the social agencies a needless disappointment. The school will not be infallible in this process and the way will always be open for persistent candidates to find their own opportunity for a demonstration of what they can do. The school, however, will naturally be on the eager search for all promising men and women and will have its greatest satisfaction in the discovery and development of those who "to natural ability and talents" add "the systematic training and theoretical knowledge to be gained from education," so that "there results a personality of unusual force and value."* The School of Philanthropy and the Intercollegiate Bureau undertook this inquiry in the first instance because of its obvious value in planning and carrying forward their own work. The results are made public in return for the courteous co-operation received from the social agencies and social workers, and because all directors and officers of the social agencies and all social workers have a direct interest in the situation which the inquiry discloses. Ignorant, incompetent and untrained employes of social agencies should be gradually, and not too gradually, displaced by trained and capable workers. Those already at work who are not too old to learn and who are capable of learning should be encouraged to take special extension courses at a school for training social workers or elsewhere. Executives who are responsible for engaging the staff should get out of their heads the dreary platitudes about "personality" and "natural gifts," and co-operate with the universities and training schools in uniting "ability and talents" to "systematic training." Boards of * Cicero. INTRODUCTION 9 directors should make up their minds to pay adequate salaries to workers already competent. The training schools on their part should undertake to meet the actual needs, setting the standards for admission and graduation neither so low as to betray the profession which they are helping to create, nor so high as to fail to provide workers who can afford to accept the positions which exist. Eight hundred workers in institutions, twenty-six hundred in other agencies which deal with individuals and families, and five hundred in community movements for research and education, if they fully realize their own professional obligations, and become fully conscious of their responsibilities, may establish standards of preparation, of promotion and tenure, of compensation and security against both personal misfortune and failure to be of the greatest possible service in their own calling-all of which will be of direct and substantial value to their employers, to those under their care and to the public. E.T.D.';,I: <* i : - I rr~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATION I POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATION More than four thousand women and men are employed professionallyin organized social work in the unofficial philanthropies, exclusive of the public service, in New York City. By organized social work we mean the efforts of public and private agencies to improve conditions of life in the community, either through the relief and cure of individual distress, or through the removal of the causes of adversity and the enlargement of opportunity for normal living. Broadly speaking it is an effort to perfect social relationships, and naturally, therefore, it takes different forms in different communities or in different generations according to the characteristics of the common life. In our generation and in New York City, the great fundamental social problem is that complex condition which we call poverty, and social work today may be defined as organized effort to remove the causes of poverty that are known to be removable, and through research and experimentation to develop a better understanding and a more skillful handling of all the conditions which check the development of wholesome community life. Social workers are concerned not only with the relief of the poor but with public education through the growth of newer social movements, the recreation movement, the public health movement, the child welfare movement,-all the activities which tend to better social relationships, and which would have their place even in a state in which the fight against poverty in its more obvious manifestations had been won. If this be a true definition, then social work may be regarded as a permanent activity in the modern state. Whatever the ultimate place of social work may be, however, the fact that the social agencies today which have developed in response to the public demand for the relief and cure of distress and the improvement of conditions have taken their task so seriously as to organize and develop a corps of salaried workers is a fact of public interest and significance. If the purposes of social work are vital to the welfare of society, an appraisal of the I3 14 'POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK standards prevailing in the choice of workers to accomplish these purposes, and an analysis of the tangible facts about their salaries, education and experience are important not only to the workers but to the public whom they represent. The data reveal not merely the conditions in a new vocation, but the tendency of the vocation to become a recognized profession, with standards commensurate with its large purposes. Obviously the campaign against poverty and the perfecting of social relationships are not tasks to be accomplished by salaried social workers alone. They are the work of the whole community, but so also is the cure of disease or the preservation of health, or the problems of legal relationships, or the development of religious faith and action; and yet in each of these fields, in medicine, in the ministry, and in law, organized professional leadership is an established fact. In each of these professions, the recruiting and training of competent workers are problems the solution of which has proceeded contemporaneously with the development of modern needs. Those who believe that the groups enlisted in so momentous an undertaking as that of social work must be as carefully recruited and trained, have a vital interest in tangible facts about the present status and needs of social workers. The results of an original investigation of salaries and requirements in New York City are here presented, first, as a contribution of fact toward a consideration of standards in social work; second, for the information of those who may be considering it as a vocation for themselves; and third, for the use of boards of directors, contributors, executives, teachers in schools of philanthropy and others who are responsible for developing and maintaining such standards of preparation and compensation as shall insure the qualities needed for accomplishing the high aims of social service. METHOD OF INVESTIGATION The investigation here reported was undertaken in the winter and spring of I915, under the joint direction, as already explained, of the New York School of Philanthropy and the Intercollegiate Bureau of Occupations, which maintains a department for social workers. Both these institutions had a direct interest in a knowledge of salaries and qualifications in positions in social organizations throughout the country. For practical reasons it was necessary to limit this initial inquiry to New York City. POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK I5 So many social movements are represented in that complex community, however, that a study there may safely be regarded as a kind of cross-section, not necessarily representative, of course, of conditions in smaller towns and cities, but suggestive as to the facts which we hope may be gathered elsewhere. The investigation was financed by the School of Philanthropy and conducted by Mrs. Florence Woolston, under the direction of a joint committee of the School and the Bureau, Edward T. Devine, chairman, and Mary Van Kleeck. For the statistical work in the report, Miss Henriette R. Walter is responsible. Two schedules were used,* one for facts about the organization, the types of positions and the salary ranges, and the other for information about the worker, including experience, training, salary, and the duties of the present position. The data thus secured were supplemented by the investigator's interviews with executives and heads of departments. Time and resources did not permit the inclusion of the public service in the study, and the inquiry, therefore, relates exclusively to private philanthropies. As the first comprehensive study of its kind in New York, it was attended by all the difficulties of a pioneer effort. The Charities Directory was a useful guide but it does not always disclose whether an organization employs salaried workers, so that time was often spent in tracing those not properly included in our investigation. The co-operation given us by social workers was remarkable, especially as the winter, with its widespread unemployment, was making extraordinarily heavy demands upon their time and strength. In some instances the workers were reluctant to give any facts about their salaries. Among these reluctant ones, curiously enough, were some whose chief task is the investigation of wages and conditions in occupations other than their own. More fundamental were the difficulties encountered in attempting to define the field of social work and to classify types of positions. The development of the social conscience which has been so marked a characteristic of public opinion in recent years has resulted in the rise of new movements applying new and radically different methods to the solution of the same problems, many of them centuries old, which have called forth the charitable efforts of other days. The older types still persist, and the result is that we find in New York the widest divergence in aim * See pp. 54-5. I6 POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK and method in the institutions and associations, which, because of their common relation to the conditions created by poverty, are grouped together as social organizations. Naturally the scope of the positions open in them, the demands made upon the workers, and the salaries paid differ with differences in aims and methods. Even organizations called by the same name, as settlements or relief societies or orphan asylums, are often widely dissimilar, and, moreover, tasks which might seem to be alike in different organizations, as the work of visitors, executive officers, or club leaders, may have little in common in actual performance. Again, not all the employes of a social organization would be classed as social workers. The administrative force, the stenographers, bookkeepers, clerical workers, or telephone operators have essentially the same duties that they would have in a law office or a factory. On the other hand, some of those whose primary duties are administrative may have responsibilities which are professional in one sense, as in the case of some secretaries to executives. In some instances all the employes of an organization were listed in the schedules. In making our count we separated professional workers from administrative and clerical workers, and in order that the results might be as free from error as possible we decided after examining and classifying the schedules returned to us, to send to each organization a list showing which of their workers we had classified as professional* and asking them to approve or revise it. THE NUMBER OF PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL WORKERS IN NEW YORK One of the purposes of the investigation was to ascertain the total number of salaried positions open to social workers. We aimed to take a census in this vocation. No such information existed. The United States census in I9IO had recorded only 862 men and 1,394 woment who were classified as "religious and charity workers" and "keepers of penal and charitable institutions" in New York City.T * The sentence in the letter defining professional activities was as follows: "Under the heading of professional positions we included all which were filled by persons engaged in the professional activities of your organization as distinct from clerical work and other service requiring no special knowledge of the problems of social work." t Thirteenth United States Census, I90o. Vol. IV, Occupations, p. 192. t These are grouped under the general heading "semi-professional pursuits" with spiritualists, fortune tellers, hypnotists, notaries, theatrical managers, officials of lodges and societies, healers, and justices of the peace. Evidently census tabulators do not yet regard social work as a profession. POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK I7 Our list of the social organizations was taken from the 1914 edition of the New York Charities Directory and later compared with the edition of 1915, which was issued after the investigation began. The more recent issue, that of 1915, is the basis of discussion here. It contains a record of I,I30 organizations exclusive of churches. We omitted, first, the governmental agencies, for the reasons already stated. In general, workers more properly classified in.other professions as in churches and religious societies, hospitals and dispensaries, were omitted, although a summary of information about hospital social service departments was obtained and a number of individual schedules of workers were returned.* Others, properly recorded in a Charities Directory intended as a guide book for social workers but not social agencies in a strict sense of the word, were not listed in our study: such as training schools, agencies and homes for nurses, burial associations, religious societies and orders, sisterhoods and homes for deaconesses and training schools for religious workers, mission societies and medical societies. We also omitted most of those having no headquarters in New York City, although we included some institutions used frequently by the social workers of the city but not located within the city limits. Conferences and congresses without any organized permanent staff were not included. In a few cases, for lack of time and difficulties in defining the field, we were guilty of inadvertent omissions. These were chiefly in Brooklyn and Staten Island. The number of organizations remaining after these omissions was 605. Of these, it was found that 24 had been discontinued, and that 122 employed no salaried workers. The number refusing to give the desired information was 54, while 50 others failed to reply to several requests. In I cases, it was decided after inquiry that the organizations could not properly be classified as social agencies under our definition, and all of these had preferred for this reason to be excluded. The remaining 344 co-operated with us, 297 giving us the facts in schedule formt * Because of limitation of time, social service in the churches was not included, but information about it was secured in interviews with those familiar with the field. The Roman Catholic organizations were not studied separately, as so few employ lay workers, and facts about them were summarized in interviews with several of their prominent representatives. t Of this number, 3 did not state number of workers POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK TABLE I.-NUMBER OF PROFESSIONAL WORKERS EMPLOYED IN 368 SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS,a BY TYPE OF ORGANIZATION AND BY SEX Professional workers employed in each specified type of organization Type of organization Men Women Total INSTITUTIONAL WORK Institutions for children 60 351 411 Institutions for the aged 19 55 74 Working girls' boarding houses. 38 38 Homes for temporary relief I I 25 36 Institutions for the defective 42 59 11o All other 54 87 141 Total 186 615 80o OTHER WORK WITH INDIVIDUALS Settlements and clubs 97 347 444 Other educational or recreational agencies 349 466 815 Relief and rehabilitation societies 61 350 411 Agencies for immigrants 31 32 63 Agencies for children 64 588 652 Agencies for the sick or defective 18 IIOO II8 All other 57 Io6 163 Total 677 1,989 2,666 COMMUNITY MOVEMENTS Research and educational propaganda: General social conditions 72 66 138 Health I5 6 21 Industry 6 20 26 Education I8 74 92 Child welfare Io 15 25 Civic affairs 78 3 8i All other 49 69 ii8 Total 248 253 501 Grand total I,III 2,857 3,968 a Of the 371 organizations co-operating, 3 did not state number of workers. and 47* providing a summary of the information; while in addition 27 of the I04 who had refused or failed to answer when asked to fill our schedules were willing as a result of our final circular confirming our census to state the number of paid workers without detail as to salaries. The individual social workers responding to our request for personal information numbered 955, in 141 * These were day nurseries. POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK I9 different organizations.* In- addition, a large number of clerical workers returned individual schedules but these were not included in the tabulation of facts about professional social workers. Of the 605 which formed our working list of organizations, then, 157 should be deducted as not properly social agencies, or as no longer in existence, or as employing no salaried workers. Of the 448 remaining, we could secure no information about 77. We made a count of the workers in 368 and more detailed information in schedule form was given us concerning 297 of these. Table I on page 18 gives the results of the count for 368 agencies, or 82 per cent of our working list of the private philanthropies employing salaried social workers. Thus we have counted 3,968 positions in 368 organizations. These were filled by I,III men and 2,857 women. Practically all the large agencies are included in this table. Even if the small societies not reporting employ an average o'f only one salaried worker, we may safely conclude that the private philanthropies of New York City employ more than four thousand social workers. Before discussing their distribution in the different branches of social work, it may be well to consider Table 2, which gives a more detailed classification of types of agencies, and shows also how long they have been in existence. It deals with the 297 organizations for which the schedules were filled and not with the entire number of 368 included in the census. As a plan of classification was a necessary preliminary to the compilation of results in table form, an explanation of the scheme which we have adopted and its advantages and defects is desirable, especially as it reveals some significant facts in the growth of this profession. Probably, when the term social work is used, one thinks instinctively of types of agencies, a settlement, a charity organization society, a working girls' club, or a child labor committee, and this would seem to be a natural basis of classification. Or one thinks of the work done, legislative propaganda, or nursing the sick at home, or finding employment. Or perhaps one thinks of different types among those aided, children, or working girls, or widows, or immigrants, or cripples, or the sick. But although these all suggest logical methods of classifying the tasks of social workers, no one of them is wholly satis* It was found that 176 of these were employed on part time, or were receiving maintenance in addition to salary or combined more than one position in social work, so that they were not included in the tables, which show the cash salaries in full time positions. 20 POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK TABLE 2.-TYPE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, BY NUMBER OF YEARS SINCE FOUNDING Organizations of each specified type which have been founded All Type of organization 5 Io 15 25 organType of organization Les as years years years 50 izathan and and and and years tions 5 less less less less or years than than than than more Io0 I5 25 50 INSTITUTIONAL WORK Institutions for children I 2 I 4 5 12 25 Institutions for the aged 3 I 2 8 3 I7 Working girls' boarding houses I 3 2 4 2 I 13 Homes for immigrants 2 I 4 3 I I I Other institutions for temporary relief I i I 5 Fresh air and convalescent homes I I I 4 2. 9 Institutions for the defective I I I I 3 7 Correctional institutions I.. I. I 2 Total 5 12 9 20 23 23 92 OTHER WORK WITH INDIVIDUALSI Settlements and clubs 3 5 9 16 6 2 41 Educational agencies.. I 3 4 I2 3 23 Relief and rehabilitation societies 2.. 4 7 13 i6 Agencies for immigrants 1 3 2 4 I I Day nurseries and kindergartens.. I 4 I 5 I I Other agencies for children.I I 4 2 8 Correctional agencies... i 8 Agencies for the defective 3 I 3 I.. 8 Agencies for the sick 3 2.. 6 Employment agencies I.... 3 6 Recreational agencies.... 3 All other I 3 I I 2 8 Total 9 2I 25 32 42 20 I49 COMMUNITY MOVEMENTS Research and educational propaganda: General social conditions 5 3 I 2 2.. 13 Health I 6 I.. I 9 Industry I I I I 2 6 Education I 2 I.. 5 Child welfare I I 2..... 4 Correction.. I I I 4 Race betterment 2..... 3 Recreation I..... 2 Civic affairs.. I.... 2 All other, 3 2 I I 8 Total II 20 6 8 9 2 56 Grand total [ 25 53 40 6o 74 45 297 a In 5 cases in which the organization is composed of two departments lhrne.o xArnrl- falle in l;iffpront mn;n rlaeeifratine fc rlrn-rfmnnfe hlianro hpon POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 21 factory in describing the work of various organizations for the reason that the growth of work in a philanthropic agency is not determined by its name so much as by the needs of the community and the ability of the agency to undertake new duties. A charity organization society initiates legislative work to correct bad housing conditions. A settlement maintains both girls' clubs and kindergartens. Societies dealing with large numbers of immigrants may not be primarily concerned with problems of immigration. Any attempt to classify according to type of agency or work done, or types aided must result in forcing the data to fit the tabulating scheme, thus failing to show the real significance of the facts. We have tried to avoid this danger by adopting first a broad classification of (I) institutional work, (2) other work with individuals, and (3) community movements, and then determining the primary purpose or characteristic of the agencies under these large heads. Broadly speaking, social work today is of two main types, the one with the chief emphasis upon work with families or individuals, and the other with the emphasis upon the problem rather than the individual, and with the direct aim of general improvement of social conditions as distinct from efforts to improve the condition of individuals whether by relief, by skilled social treatment, by education, or by any other means of meeting individual needs. It should be borne in mind that work with individuals frequently results in general improvement, and that social organizations concerned with general improvement are not without contact with individuals, while both may be equally constructive and preventive; but the difference in emphasis is real and requires separate classification in any effort to analyze the positions of social workers. In some instances the same society has separate departments representing these two types of effort, and in five such cases each department has been counted as an organization that it might have its logical place in the table. Institutional work, while properly classed as work with individuals, has been kept separate because of its distinctive character. Its contact with individuals is chiefly in congregate life and not in family relationships. Table 2, therefore, has three main divisions: institutional work, other work with individuals, and community movements. It is significant that of the 78 agencies reported as established in the last ten years, 31 belonged to the last group, a number quite out of proportion to 22 POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK the total number of that group in existence as compared with other types of organizations. Thus, of the 56 agencies counted under the head of community movements, about three in five are less than ten years old; whereas, of the 92 institutions, 66 have existed at least fifteen years and 23 fifty years or more. Of the I49 other agencies dealing primarily with individuals, 94 are at least fifteen years old. In the group classified as community movements are included, as already explained, five departments of older agencies and also 29 national movements which have their headquarters in New York. It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the classification adopted is not an inventory of social activities but rather a grouping of agencies according to their primary purposes. From this point of view it is the work done and not its auspices which determines the place in the table. A church society whose purpose is to improve labor conditions would be counted as interested in industry rather than religion. On the other hand, activities carried on under the auspices of agencies whose primary interest is along some other line do not have a place in the table. For example, the number of employment agencies listed is very small because a number of them are maintained by organizations of another type, such as girls' clubs or immigrant societies or relief societies. Finally, it should be stated that under the head of community movements we have grouped agencies serving as national organizers for local groups. The number of national organizations having headquarters in New York adds a group to the ranks of social workers in that city who would probably not be represented in equal numbers in any other city. They are at work on organization problems and have no direct contact with the local field except through their affiliated organizations. They are not indicative of the social movement in New York, but rather reflect national effort. This fact should be borne in mind throughout the discussion of salaries and qualifications. The greater number listed in the table under community movements are organizations engaged in research work, education of public opinion, or legislative propaganda in the several subjects specified. Returning to Table I, we find that the largest group of workers are in organizations engaged in work with individuals, 2,666 of the total group of 3,968, while 8o0 are in institutions and 50I in general community movements. Approximately 28 of every POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 23 Ioo are men. The average force in the 368 organizations employing these 3,968 workers is II, exclusive, of course, of clerical workers. Table 3 indicates in more detail the size of the organizations. TABLE 3.-TYPE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION BY NUMBER OF PROFESSIONAL WORKERS EMPLOYED Organizations of each specified type which employ All 5 Io 25 orType of organizationa Less work- work- work- 50 ganithan ers ers ers work- za5 and and and ers tions work- less less less or ers than than than more o0 25 50 INSTITUTIONAL WORK Institutions for children 4 8 12 I 2 27 Institutions for the aged I2 5 I... Working girls' boarding houses I I I I 13 Homes for temporary relief 16 I.. 17 All other 12 4 2 I 2 21 Total 55 19 I6 2 4 96b OTHER WORK WITH INDIVIDUALS Settlements and clubs 24 12 12. I 49 Other educational or recreational agencies 4 3 9 7 4 27 Relief and rehabilitation societies 9 2 2 I 3 17 Agencies for immigrants 9 I I. 12 Agencies for children 35 21 5 2 2 65 Agencies for the sick or defective 6 6 2 I. 15 All other I14 7 5 I 27 Total IoI 52 36 3 I 2I2 COMMUNITY MOVEMENTS Research and educational propaganda: General social conditions 6 I 5 I 13 Health 8 I... 9 Industry 6... 7 Education 3 2. 6 Child welfare 2 I I. 4 All other 12 2 4 2 I 21 Total 37 5 13 3 2 6ob Grand total 193 76 65 i8 16 368b a In 5 cases in which the organization is composed of two departments whose work falls in different main classifications, the departments have been reated as distinct organizations. b Of the 371 organizations co-operating, I institution, I other organization working with individuals, and I engaged in research or educational propaganda did not give information as to the number of workers employed. 24 POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK The predominant type is that with a small staff. More than half, 193, employ less than five professional workers. The largest agencies were found in the group of organizations working with individuals. Less than 10 per cent, 34 of the total reporting, employ 25 or more workers. This may imply that there is scope for experiment and variety, as might not be the case if the social work of the city employing the present aggregate number of persons were concentrated in a few large agencies. On the other hand greater concentration might avoid waste, increase economy, and promote standardization. WHAT THE SOCIAL WORKERS ARE DOING This classification of organizations, while throwing light on the general divisions of the field as determined by the primary purposes of the societies, does not indicate the specific tasks of the workers. It will be recalled that schedules of organizations contain an outline of duties and from these we have secured the data for Table 4, to indicate the chief work done in 3,447 positions in 293 organizations reporting on this point. This list represents, of course, merely a rough designation of the chief technique in positions, while it takes no account of the larger subjects which give the positions their distinctive character. A research worker may be studying housing, immigration, industrial problems, or the standards of an institution. A visitor may be employed by a family agency, or an organization for the protection of immigrant girls. On the other hand, in the field of immigration, the work done may include visiting, research, finance, organization of clubs, interpreting or teaching, while the same tasks may be found in the recreation movement. It would appear from the table that in some positions, like library work, or teaching, or domestic science in social organizations, the technique is derived from other vocations; while in others, such as statistics, finance, and secretarial work, the logic of classifying the workers as professional would seem to be open to question. In both instances the claim to professional rank must rest not upon the technique, but upon the subject matter, the educational content of the work,-industry and all its social implications, immigration and its relation to movements of population and to standards of life, or the psychology of individuals in their social relationships. These and many other subjects are bound up in the problem of poverty, and their difficulty and importance con POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 25 stitute the challenge to higher professional standards. It is not claimed that all social workers are conscious of them. It should be added, of course, that as abstract subjects they do not constitute a profession. They become the content of professional and vocational activity only when they give rise to organized social movements with a developing technique designed to accomplish definite results. TABLE 4.-NUMBER OF PROFESSIONAL WORKERS IN 293 SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONSa BY TYPE OF WORK DONE AND SEX Professional workers in each specified type of Type of work position Men Women Total Executive work 127 8i 208 Executive assistance 26 i8 44 Supervision 116 303 419 Assistance in supervision I 55 66 Teaching 263 766 1,029 Visiting and investigationb 92 339 431 Nursing 305 305 Matron's work 29c 222 251 Recreation 59 87 146 Problem research 87 15 102 Publicity and promotion 45 35 80 Club leadership 43 37 8o Public speaking 4 60 64 Secretarial work 11 35 46 Office interviewing 6 30 36 Finance I 19 30 Medical work 13 Io 23 Editing 10 Io 20 Library work 4 12 I6 Statistics 3 5 8 Dietetics and domestic science 7 8 Work on exhibits 3 4 All other 14 17 31 Total 976 2,47 3,447 a Of the 297 organizations giving information in schedule form, 3 did not state the number of workers, and I did not give information as to type of work done. b Includes besides case work, institutional visiting, travelers' aid, and investigation of employers by employment agencies. c These are "house fathers" and boys' caretakers. 26 POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK The definitions adopted for classification were necessarily arbitrary. An executive, for example, was a worker charged with responsibility for administration, for development of policies and for contacts with other agencies and the public. In some instances, an organization has more than one executive, while, unfortunately, in others there may be none, the duties of the chief of the staff being more correctly described as supervisory, while administrative responsibility may devolve upon unpaid directors or may even be conspicuous by its absence. Supervisors include all those other than executives who are responsible for the work of subordinates. We classified 252 as executives or their assistants, and 485 as supervisors or assistant supervisors. Of all the occupations listed, teaching heads the list, although much of it is in part time positions so that its importance is not so great as the actual count would indicate. Supervisory positions come second, not because the number of supervisors is out of proportion to the rest of the force, but because the workers directed by them are scattered in the other groups. Visiting and investigation other than problem research is third in importance, and the majority employed in it are women. Other tasks include field work in problem research; social writing and publicity; finance, by which is meant, of course, the task of raising funds and making the work known to possible contributors; club leadership; library work; dietetics and domestic science; public speaking; nursing; recreation; and executive positions. While the statistical table represents a kind of charting of the field, it has defects in that the line of demarcation is not always distinct. One worker performs many functions, and duties vary as the program of the organization changes. A careful study of the scope of each position would be of great interest to executives responsible for the organization of their offices and to teachers who are training future social workers. Such a study, however, was too detailed to be undertaken in the course of this inquiry. In answer to the question as to kind of work done, many of the social workers gave interesting outlines of their own tasks, and a few of these are quoted as more illuminating than the group statistics. I. District secretary in society for family rehabilitation. Building up of district committee through which social agencies of neighborhood are related to one another; super POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 27 vision of case work of families under care; training of workers in office; development of co-operation; enlisting and training of volunteers; securing of special funds for families. 2. Visitor for relief society. Visiting, aiding, advising and planning for the poor families who are referred to the society, or who appeal for assistance themselves; making reports and keeping records of these families. 3. Publicity secretary in legislative propaganda. Directs newspaper and periodical publicity; assists in editing, and supervises publication of a quarterly bulletin and of pamphlets; responsible for cataloguing of material received for the society's library (sharing the work with two assistants); shares in the writing of press stories and articles. 4. Milk station nurse. Instructing mothers as to the feeding and care of the baby; visiting the homes and instructing in general hygiene. 5. Superintendent of convalescent home and industrial training school. General executive, housekeeping, business management, purchase of supplies, correspondence, keeping of books and records; medical supervision, nursing, periodical reports to medical board; social supervision, reports to agencies sending patients. 6. Nurse in charge of a day nursery. Examination of children on admission; attention to diet and general supervision of children's care, etc.; visiting in homes of families represented in nursery. 7. Special investigator (general social improvement). Field surveys; interviewing; statistical compilation and analyses; photography of social subjects; correspondence; exhibits; articles and publicity; graphic illustration. 8. Executive secretary in health organization. Usual secretarial duties in connection with meetings. Serves as a connecting agent between clinics belonging to the association; maintains close personal touch with each clinic; organizes nurses doing the clinic work; makes special studies 28 POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK of various phases of the work; aids in the development of the social work of the clinics; edits and publishes a monthly bulletin; gives informal addresses on the association work. 9. Director of organization engaged in legislative propaganda. Writing and editing articles and pamphlets; drafting and securing the passage and enforcement of legislation; lecturing; corresponding and otherwise conducting the educational, legislative and organizing campaign. If we were to attempt to find the common elements in such tasks we might summarize them by saying that the social worker is primarily concerned, first, with individual relationships; second, with group relationships; and third, with public education. Adjustment of individuals or groups to one another and public leadership in community education on social problems are both tasks comparable with those of any other profession, if their full possibilities be realized. Their adequate fulfillment demands insight, vision, powers of initiative in thought and action, breadth of view, the gift of interpretation, skill in social diagnosis, and training in presenting evidence. Such a description would not seem extravagant to those who realize the full weight of social problems in our generation,-problems second to none in importance, touching, also, many other important professions: medicine, law, the church, and the school. SALARIES Nevertheless social work is not yet widely recognized as a profession, and even the payment of salaries to social workers is not universally accepted as legitimate. Recent magazine articles imply that the man on the street thinks of a salary budget in a charitable society as an unwarranted subtraction from the donations of money for the poor. He still believes that money will relieve or cure the poverty of individuals. If he is "hardheaded," he may think that the salary of an investigator who will separate the worthy from the unworthy is a good business investment, but the real task of the social worker is quite unknown to him. Possibly some responsibility for not making the public understand rests upon the social workers, who have not taken time or who may have lacked the ability to formulate their own purposes 6r methods. Perhaps the situation is a natural one, POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 29 since social work as it is now organized is a new and developing vocation. The time when the charitable societies depended chiefly upon volunteer visitors is well within the memory of some members of present boards of directors. The New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, organized in 1843, did not employ salaried visitors until 1879. At present, although, of course, volunteer service is of importance to this association as to other societies, the daily work is carried forward by a large corps of men and women giving all their time to it. The Charity Organization Society was not organized until 1882, and by that time the necessity for professional salaried work was already recognized and the society never depended wholly upon volunteers. At the time of organization, each district had a paid district agent, with volunteers working with her. At present each district has also its salaried visitors, whose work is extended and supplemented by volunteers. The society realizes that the volunteer and the professional have each a distinct function to perform, one supplementing the other. Economically the payment of a salary for the performance of certain tasks of charity and social welfare is justified on the same grounds on which we base approval of any compensation paid for services done for the community. Nor is this idea entirely modern. In the religious orders centuries ago, as today, admission to the order insured maintenance for life, and from the economic point of view this was probably a higher rate of return than prevails now in many social organizations. There is room for difference of opinion as to the standards by which the rate of compensation in this vocation may be gauged, but this much seems to be obvious,-that if social work requires the services of more than 4,000 workers in one city, the tasks cannot be accomplished satisfactorily, that is to say, with social advantage both for the worker and the community, unless the salary is equal to the cost of living. This principle is voiced by many social workers as applicable to industrial establishments; and if it is true in industry, it surely applies also to the professions, and may be kept in mind as a fair measure of the meaning of the statistics of salaries in social work. It is interesting to note that a few years ago one of the large societies adopted the principle of a minimum salary equal to the minimum cost of living for workers of the grade employed by it, and after careful study of actual personal TABLE 5.-TYPE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONa, BY MINIMUM ANNUAL SALARY PAID TO FULL TIME PROFESSIONAL WORKERS Organizations of each specified type which pay a minimum annual salary of.........~~~ Type of organization WORK WITH INDIVIDUALS Settlements and clubs Other educational or recreational agencies Relief and rehabilitation societies Agencies for immigrants Agencies for children c Agencies for the sick or defective o All other $400 Less and than less $400 than $500 3 5 2 2 5 4 2 I 2 I $5oo and less than $600 $600 and less than $700 7 2 4 I I 2 3 $700 and less than $800 9 4 2 I 2 I 2 $8oo and less than $900 3 I 2 I $900 and less than $1,000 4 2 8 $1,000 and less than $I,200 I 4 I I 2 I $ I,200 and less than $1,500 3 I 2 2 $I,500 or more All organizations 33 21 I5 7 I5 13 19 3 2 4 I I 1 1 2 I I Total 10 17 I 20 21 7 14 o1 9 4 123 COMMUNITY MOVEMENTS Research and educational propaganda: General social conditions...... I 3.I I 2 4 2 13 Health............ I.. 6 8 Industry... I.... 3.. I. 5 Education I.. I I.... I.. I 5 Child welfare I..... I..... 4 All other.__. I 3 2 I 2 2 5 2 I8 Total 2 2 5 7 2 7 7 Io I 53 Grand total 12 17 13 25 28 9 21 17 19 15 I76b --- -- - - - - - - - a Institutional work has been omitted since with few exceptions the workers receive maintenance in addition to a cash salary. The institutions have been treated in a separate table. (See Table 7.) b Of the 205 organizations of these two types included in the study, 13 did not give information as to salaries; I gave maintenance in addition to a cash salary to all their workers; 4 employed only part time workers; and I employed only one worker on a commission basis. TABLE 6.-TYPE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONa, BY MAXIMUM ANNUAL SALARY PAID TO FULL TIME PROFESSIONAL WORKERS Organizations of each specified type which pay a maximum annual salary of All $600 $800 $I,ooo $I,200 $I,500 $2,000 $2,500 $3,000 $4,000 orType of organization Less and and and and and and and and and $5,ooo ganithan less less less less less less less less less or za$600 than than than than than than than than than more tions $800 $,ooo $,200 $I,500 $2,ooo00 $2,500 $3,000 $4,000 $5,000 4 WORK WITH INDIVIDUALS Settlements and clubs Other educational or recreational agencies Relief and rehabilitation societies C- Agencies for immigrants Agencies for children Agencies for the sick or defective All other I 3 I 4 2 3 I 2 3 4 2 I 2 I 3 4 I 3 I 2 I 9 2 I 2 3 5 3 6 5 I 2 I 3 2 I 2 2 2 2 2 2 I I 2 I I I I 4 3 I 32 20 I4 7 I5 I3 I8 Total 5 19 9 12 25 15 12 4 7 3 8 II9 COMMUNITY MOVEMENTS All research and educational propaganda I I I 2 4 I0 6 2 6 4 I3 49 Grand total 6 20 9 14 29 25 I8 6 13 7 21 I68b a Institutional work has been omitted as with few exceptions the workers receive maintenance in addition to a cash salary. The institutions have been treated in a separate table (Table 8). b Of the 205 organizations of these two types included in the study, 16 organizations did not give information as to the highest salary paid, 13 gave maintenance in addition to a cash salary to their highest paid workers, and in 8 the highest paid worker was employed only on part time. 32 POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK budgets, increased its minimum rate to $60 a month. The society itself is dissatisfied with so low a minimum, and anyone familiar with the cost of living in New York would doubt its adequacy. We have secured two sets of data regarding salaries. The first is derived from the schedules filled for the organization as a whole, showing range of payment in each type of position. It does not show the number of workers receiving a stated amount. The second set of figures is drawn from records of individuals, showing actual salaries received by them, and making possible some correlation between training and compensation. Omitting for the moment all consideration of institutional work, since the addition of living expenses to cash income complicates the figures, we may find in Tables 5 and 6 the minimum and maximum salary paid in various types of social organizations. Of 176 organizations recorded in Table 5, 42 had a minimum of less than $600 a year; and in 25 others, or 67 in all, the minimum was less than $700. Nearly half of the organizations dealing with individuals had a minimum of less than $700, but only a sixth of those engaged in general improvement of conditions were in that class. The fact that 34 organizations paid a minimum of $I,200 or more becomes less surprising when we realize that these are small societies employing sometimes only one professional social worker without any subordinates other than clerical assistants. In such cases the minimum salary is that of an executive. Table 5 does not show salaries for work done, but merely indicates one end of the scales of compensation in the organizations. Table 6 shows the other end. The maximum in 35 of the 168 listed is less than $1,ooo a year. Each group of agencies in the table is represented in these lower salary columns. Twenty-one organizations, including, it should be noted, 13 concerned with general community movements and 8 of those dealing with individuals, pay a maximum of $5,ooo or over. These are the big positions in social work, involving heavy responsibilities and requiring qualifications which would undoubtedly command salaries as high or higher in other professions, such, for example, as the school system in New York City, in which district superintendents receive $5,ooo a year and associate city superintendents, $6,500. Tables 7 and 8 give similar data for institutions and other POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 33 organizations in which the specified salary is given in addition to maintenance. TABLE 7.-TYPE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, BY MINIMUM ANNUAL CASH SALARY PAID TO FULL TIME PROFESSIONAL WORKERS WHO RECEIVE MAINTENANCE IN ADDITION TO CASH SALARIES Organizations of each specified type which pay a minimum annual salary besides maintenance of Al orType of organization $200 $300 $400 $500 $6oo ganiLess and and and and and $700oo zathan less less less less less or tions $200 than than than than than more $300 $400 $500 $600 $700 INSTITUTIONAL WORK Institutions for children I 6 13 2 I. 25 Institutions for the aged I 2 7 2 I 2 15 Working girls' boarding houses I 4 5 2 I I3 Homes for temporary re- lief I 5 2 1 I 3 13 All other. I 5 71 4 2 19 Total 4 9 34 I8 3 9 8 85a OTHER WORK WITH IN- DIVIDUALS 3 2 3. 2 3 II Grand total 7 9 37 i8 3 I II 96 a Of the 92 institutions included in the study, 5 did not give information as to salaries and 2 employed only part time workers. Probably it would be fair to estimate the cost of maintenance as at least $25 a month or $300 a year, and to add that amount to the figures. In some instances executives or superintendents receive maintenance also for their families, so that the cash value to them is considerably larger. Exclusive of maintenance, we find 71 of the 96 paying a minimum of less than $500. Four paid a maximum of $4,000 or more in addition to board and lodging, but the maximum in 61, or two-thirds of those recorded, was less than $I,ooo. These figures, while indicating standards, are unsatisfactory in that they do not show the number of workers receiving a TABLE 8.-TYPE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, BY MAXIMUM ANNUAL CASH SALARY PAID TO FULL TIME PROFESSIONAL WORKERS WHO RECEIVE MAINTENANCE IN ADDITION TO CASH SALARIES I_ __ Organizations of each specified type which pay a maximum annual salary besides maintenance of Type of organization Less than $600 $600 and less than $800 $8oo and less than $I,000 $1,000 and less than $I,200 $1,200 and less than $I,500 $I,500 and less than $2,000 $2,000 and less than $2,500 $2,500 and less than $3,ooo $3,000 and less than $4,000 I......... ----i --- I - I I $4,000 and less than $5,000 I $5,000 or more All organizations INSTITUTIONAL WORK Institutions for children CA Institutions for the aged -1 Working girls' boarding houses Homes for temporary reliefb All other institutional work 4 3 5 6 5 6 5 4 2 2 2 I I I 5 I I. o 5 I 2 ~ o I I I 3 I I I I I I 3 25 12 13 13 17 80a Total 23 I9 IO 2 9 7 2 4 I 3 OTHER WORK WITH INDIVIDUALS 2 6 I I..... 13 IGrand total 25 25 - 2 2 8 2 4.. I 3 93 Grand total 25 25 II 2 12 8 2 4 I 3 93.....~~] 2 a Of the 92 institutions included in this study, 7 did not state maximum salaries, 4 employed only part time workers, and in one the highest paid worker was non-resident, receiving $1I,200 a year. b Includes several immigrant homes which employ, in addition to resident workers, agents at Ellis Island who receive cash salary without maintenance. The rates for the latter were not included in this table. POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 35 specified salary. Such data must be secured from the schedules of individual workers. The facts appear in Table 9. TABLE 9.-ANNUAL SALARIES OF PROFESSIONAL WORKERS IN SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS, BY SEX Professional workers whose annual salary was as specified Annual salary I Men Women Total Less than $300.. I I $300 and less than $400 2 IO 12 $400 and less than $500 I 30 31 $500 and less than $600 2 20 22 $600 and less than $700 13 65 78 $700 and less than $800 19 97 II6 $800 and less than $900 3 39 42 $900 and less than $I,ooo II 91 I02 $I,ooo and less than $I,Ioo 6 58 64 $I,Ioo and less than $I,200 I 27 28 $I,2oo and less than $I,300 15 74 89 $I,300 and less than $I,400 4 19 23 $1,400 and less than $1,500 I 9 Io $I,500 and less than $I,600 6 25 3I $I,6oo and less than $I,800 2 7 9 $I,800 and less than $2.000 7 13 20 $2,000 and less than $2,400 II II 22 $2,400 and less than $2,700 15 3 I8 $2,700 and less than $3,000 3.. 3 $3,000 and less than $4,000 15 2 17 $4,000 and less than $5,000 I I.. I I $5,000 and less than $6,000oo 4 I 5 $6,000 or more 4. 4 Total 156 602 758a a Of the 955 social workers who filled out individual schedules, I97 were not counted in the salary tables, as 29 men and 39 women were part time workers, 15 men and 93 women received maintenance in addition to their cash salaries, and 14 men and 7 women who were full time, non-resident workers did not give information as to salaries. Of 602 women reporting, 353, or 59 per cent, earned less than $I,000. Of the 156 men, 33 per cent were in that class. Fifty per cent of the men and ten per cent of the women earned $1,500 or more. One woman and eight men received $5,000 or more. The median group for women, half receiving less, was between $900 and $I,ooo and for men between $I,500 and $I,600. Tables Io and II show the types of organizations in which these men and women are employed and the salaries in each type. TABLE IO.-ANNUAL SALARIES OF PROFESSIONAL WOMEN WORKERS, BY TYPE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION Women in each specified type of organization whose annual salary was $400 $600 $800 $S,ooo $I,200 $1,400 $,6oo $2,000 $2,400 Type of organizations Less and and and and and and and and and $3,000oo All than less less less less less less less less less or women $400 than than than than than than than than than more $6 800 $8,000 $1,200 $1,400 $i,600 $2,000 $2,400 $3,00ooo INSTITUTIONAL WORKb Institutions for children I 3 3 5 I 3......... 16 Working girls' boarding houses 4 2 5.. I.... 13 Institutions for the sick or defective I.. 2 I.. I...... 5 All other I 3 I ___ ______ 5 Total 7 8 I I 6 2 4 I ______. ______ ______ 39 OTHER WORK WITH INDIVIDUALS Settlements and clubs Educational agencies Relief and rehabilitation societies > Agencies for immigrants O\ Day nurseries and kindergartens Other agencies for children Correctional agencies Agencies for the sick or defective Employment agencies All other 2 I I..'..'. I 3 25 9 3 I 9 4 95 17 9 7 2 5 6 9 40 2 8 37 I 4 3.. 6 4 24 14 4 2 5 I 5 8 31 I 5 I 7 I 3 4 3 2 I I 2 I I I.'. I I I: I I.... I............ 33 29 223 4 49 63 6 26 IO 5 Total 4 42 148 TIO 60 59 13 6 4 I 448 COMMUNITY MOVEMENTS Research and educational propaganda: General social conditions.... 4 6 8 7 5 2 I 2 36 Health I..... 2........ 4 Industry........ I 2 Education... 3 14 21 10 7 5 6I Child welfare... 2 I 4 All other.... 3 I I 2. 8 Total.. 3 4 23 30 20 I 7 2 2 115 Grand total II 50 I62 I30 85 93 34 20 II 3 6020......34. - a In 5 cases in which the organization is composed of departments whose work falls in different main classifications, the departments have been treated as distinct organizations. b Of the institutional workers, only those who receive cash salary without maintenance are included in this table. o Of the 609 full time women workers who supplied individual schedules, 7 did not give information as to salary. TABLE II.-ANNUAL SALARIES OF PROFESSIONAL MEN WORKERS BY TYPE OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION Men in each specified type of organization whose annual salary was $400 $600 $800 $I,ooo $1,2oo $I,400 $I,6oo $2,00o $2,400 $3,000 $4,000 All Less and and and and and and and and and and and $5,000ooo men Type of organizations than less less less less less less less less less less less or $400 than than than than than than than than than than than more $6o0 $8o $,000 $o I,200 $I,400 $1,6oo $2,000 $2,400 $3,000,ooo$4,000 $5,000 $3,2054 20 I I.. INSTITUTIONAL WORKb 2 I.. I.. OTHER WORK WITH INDIVIDUALS Settlements and clubs Relief and rehabilitation societies Ct Agencies for immigrants Correctional agencies Agencies for the sick or defective Recreational agencies All other Total COMMUNITY MOVEMENTS Research and educational propaganda: General social conditions Health Industry All other I I I I I 2 15 10 I I 8 4.o. 2 I I I 5 I 2 2 2 I I 9 2 I 3 2 2 I 5 2 I 3 I 2 3 2 I 3 2 I 3 3 3 5 8 42 22 3 5 2 I 83 2 3 29 12 I 2 I 2 4 9 8 6 5 38 I I I 3 2 I 3 2 4 2.. 20 I...... I I..~ I 3 I I 3 9. Total _ 2 I 2 8 3 4 8 15 12 8 5 68 Grand total 2 3 32 14 7 19 7 9 1II 8 15 1I 8 1560 a In 5 cases in which the organization is composed of two departments whose work falls in different main classifications, the departments have been treated as distinct organizations. b Of the institutional workers, only those who receive a cash salary without maintenance are included in this table. o Of the 170 full time men workers who supplied individual schedules, 14 did not give information as to salaries. 38 POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK The 39 institutional workers in Table 10, and 5 in Table I I were a small group who received salaries without maintenance. Those who had maintenance in addition to a salary were not included in this table, since the data for them would not be comparable with the facts about salaries without maintenance. Including all the institutional workers, the social workers returning individual schedules represented 39 institutions, 75 other agencies dealing with individuals, and 27 organizations in community movements, or 141 different agencies. Thus the individual schedules represent the three main types of social agencies in which the more inclusive count was made, and this fact would seem to indicate that the smaller group studied is a sample of the whole. In institutional work about three in every eight of the women whose salary did not include maintenance, 15 of 39, received less than $500. In work with individuals, I94 of 448, or 43 per cent, received less than $8oo00, and 29 per cent earned between $I,ooo and $I,600, with a small group of 12 receiving $I,600 or more. Only 3 of the 115 at work in community movements earned less than $800. The men in institutions who returned schedules and whose compensation did not include maintenance numbered only five, and their salaries were distributed in a range of groups from $600 to $I,600. The group of 83 in organizations dealing primarily with individuals divided at about $I,ooo, half earning more and half less, while for those at work in general research or propaganda, the median salary was between $2,400 and $3,000. Of the I9 receiving $4,000 or more, 6 were engaged in work with families or individuals and 13 in general community movements. Tables I2 and 13 show salaries according to type of position. The record of the women shows all but 5 of the 130 visitors receiving less than $i,ooo. As might be expected, the higher paid positions, those in which the annual salary is $I,600 or more, include the work of executives and supervisors. Publicity, problem research, editorial work and teaching are also represented in these higher groups. Among the men, 62 of the 156, or 39 per cent, were executives or supervisors, and more than three-fifths of these earned $2,000 or over. Fifteen, or three out of eight of the executives, earned $4,000 or more. Finance or business management, including fund raising, is well paid, only one of the five men in the group TABLE I2.-ANNUAL SALARIES OF PROFESSIONAL WOMEN WORKERS IN SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS, BY TYPE OF POSITION Women in each specified type of work whose annual salary was $400 $600 $8oo $1,ooo $1,200 $1,400 $i,6oo $2,000 $2,400 All Type of position Less and and and and and and and and and $3,000 women than less less less less less less less less less or $400 than than than than than than than than than more $60oo $8 $,00oo0 $1,200 $I,400 $I,6o0 $2,000 $2,400 $3,000 Executive work... 2.. 2 6 12 8 7 2 I 4 Executive assistance.. I.. I. I.. 3 Supervision 2 4 I2 25 41 42 10 5 2.. I 144 Assistance in supervision. I 8 9 6 3 4 I. 32 Teaching 3 9 27 4 2 7... I. 53 Visiting. 20 78 27 5. I. 130 Nursing.. 2 2 I4 8 9....... 35 Matron's work 4 7 6....17 < Recreation.... I.... I Problem research..... 2 I 3 I 2.. 9 Other investigation.. I 7 26 I 5 I. 41 Publicity and promotion...... 3 3.. I.. I I Club leadership.. I.. I I...... 3 Secretarial work.. I 5 9 4 3 I. 23 Office interviewing.. I 6 6 5 I... 19 Finance.... I.. I 9.I I Medical work.. I.. I.. 2 Editing I.... I.. 4 I... 8 Library work~. 3.... I I... 5 Statistics....... I I...2 Dietetics and domestic science.... I I....... 2 Work on exhibits.... I I......... 2 Record keeping.... 4.. I 2...... 7 Interpretinzg I.. I..... 2 Total I I 50 I62 30 85 93 34 20 3 3 602a a Of the 609 women workers on full time who filled out individual schedules, 7 did not give information as to salaries. TABLE 13.-ANNUAL SALARIES OF PROFESSIONAL MEN WORKERS IN SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS, BY TYPE OF POSITION Men in each specified type of work whose annual salary was $400 $6oo $800 $I,ooo $1,200 $1,400 $i,6oo $2,000 $2,400 $3,000 $4,ooo All Type of position Less and and and and and and and and and and and $5,000 men than less less less less less less less less less less less or $400 than than than than than than than than than than than more $600 $8oo $1,000 $I,2 0 $1,400 $i,6oo $2,000 $2,400 $3,000 $4,000 $5,ooo00 Executive work... 2...... I 8 7 40 Executive assistance. 3 I I.. 8 Supervision 3 2 6 5 2. I I 22 Assistance in supervision.. 2................ 5 Teaching.. I. I. 2 I 5 -4 Visiting 12 7 I I......21 0 Recreation.................... 2 Problem research... 2. I I 4 8 Other investigation.. 6. 2.I..... Publicity and promotion.... 2 I 4 I I 12 Club leadership........... Secretarial work.. 2. I...... 3 Office interviewing.... 2 3...... Finance...... I I.. 5 Editing ~ ~ 3 Statistics 2 ~ 3 Interpreting........... Record keeping....... I All other.. 2......... 2 Total2 | 3 1 32 I 1 77 1 9 7 9 I 18 15 II 1 8 I I56a a Of the 170 men workers on full time who filled out individual schedules, 14 did not give information as to salaries. POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 4I earning less than $i,8oo. Another fairly well paid but limited group were the 12 men in publicity work, of whom half received $2,400 or more. The notably lower paid were the 21 visitors, of whom but two earned $I,ooo or more and none as much as $I,400. To summarize, the records of the salaries of individuals show that nearly three-fifths of the women are earning less than $I,000 a year, ten per cent falling below $600, and only 3 per cent reaching $3,000 or more. One in five, or 21 per cent, receives less than $700, while even that amount is less than the minimum of $720 adopted by one society as the lowest living income. The information about the men shows that 63 per cent receive $1,200 or more, and 40 per cent earn $2,000 or more. Illustrations from the salary lists* in the public schools of New York may be useful for comparison. Kindergartners and teachers in grades 5B to 8B in the elementary schools receive a minimum of $720. The best paid of these grade teachers earn as much as $2,400, a rare salary for a woman in social work. The minimum for teachers in classes for the physically defective is $820 and the range is up to $I,900. The minimum for high school teachers is $900, ranging up to $3,I50. The executives in the system include the associate city superintendents at $6,500, district superintendents at $5,000, and directors of departments, supervisors and examiners at $3,000 to $6,500. It seems fair to compare teachers with social workers as to the responsibility and difficulty of their tasks, and it is clear that the minimum for teachers is higher and the range of opportunity greater. An occasional executive in a relief society may receive as much as the principal of a high school or a district superintendent, but only a few have salaries approximately equal to those of associate city superintendents. It is a matter of statistical record that the salary scale in the teaching profession in New York is higher than in the voluntary social agencies. Social service in governmental agencies in New York is also more highly paid than in private organizations. The budget for the department of charities for the year beginning January I, I916, shows a range of $I,o80 to $1,500 for social investigators whose tasks are like those of visitors in the voluntary societies, $i,o80 to $I,8oo for probation officers, $900 for social service nurses, $1,200 to $I,950 for institutional visitors, $1,380 to $3,500 * Estimate of year's budget. Board of Education, New York City, I915. pp. 43-220. 42 POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK for supervisory positions, and $4,000 to $7,500 for executive and administrative work. It should not be inferred, however, that the salary scale is fixed in the private social organizations. Evidence was given us again and again showing gradual increase in the standard of compensation as the scope of the work has widened and efficiency increased. As social purposes become more clearly formulated in the public mind, and standards of ability are tested in the light of new realization of the possibilities of the profession, it will probably be no longer true that the choice of social work rather than teaching will involve financial sacrifice. Meanwhile boards of directors and executives can hasten the development of high standards of accomplishment by educating contributors to an understanding of the need for trained, expert service, and the necessity for paying adequately for it. QUALIFICATIONS AND TRAINING It cannot be said that the qualifications required in social work have been standardized or even formulated with sufficient definiteness to make general statements safe. The opinions of executives on this point are significant since it is they who have the responsibility of engaging workers for their societies. More than one believed that men and women trained in vocational schools might be lacking in humane qualities, and that it was preferable to employ workers inspired by kindness and love of humanity than those possessing more knowledge or technical ability. "Personality" was the magic word used most frequently to head the list of desirable qualities. Many declared that there was a "natural gift" for social work, which could not be acquired by training and without which training was useless. We were given illustrations of workers equipped by college education and professional experience, who failed conspicuously because of the lack of this natural gift. The specific quality of personality is difficult to analyze. It seems to be composed of tact, common sense, magnetism, sympathy, love of humanity, initiative, enthusiasm, refinement, and personal force. One social worker warned us, however, in speaking specifically of case workers, that the personality most attractive socially is not always the quality needed for success as a family visitor. The timid, retiring person may make a closer contact with individuals who are themselves inexpressive. Superficially the magnetic POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 43 person may seem the most effective but she does not always succeed. The essential characteristic is to have the gift of teaching, since case work is primarily educational. In some of the organizations we were told that no social workers were employed. Clerks or matrons or business managers were engaged for specific tasks, but the directors did not consider that the salaried positions which they offered could be regarded as professional. The day nurseries may be mentioned as illustrative of agencies in which the professional possibilities of the work entrusted to salaried employes is not often recognized, while a few are beginning to realize that the care of children during the greater part of the day is a task in which expert service can be utilized to advantage. The newer conception at once creates a demand for a professional worker, while her predecessor was probably regarded by the board merely as a housekeeper or matron whose duties required no special training. This is an illustration of the change which is taking place in many different types of social agencies. In practically all of the largest organizations the executives expressed a preference for college graduates with special training for social work. The facts as to the education of those who answered our questionnaires show how far this preference has been expressed in actual choice of workers. It should be remembered, of course, that some of the men and women investigated have worked for many years for the same organization and the tangible facts about their education do not reflect present tendencies. Moreover, experience has qualified many of them for expert service and the lack of a college degree does not indicate a low standard of efficiency. On the other hand, those who believe in training in college or professional school emphasize the greater economy of this method of developing and testing power. Table 14 shows the extent of college education among social workers, irrespective of subsequent professional training. According to the table, college graduates numbered 99 among 165 men reporting and 202 of 596 women. Thus 34 per cent of the women and 60 per cent of the men were college graduates. In addition, 17 men and 44 women had attended college without graduating. The largest proportion of those possessed of a college education is found among the workers in organizations concerned in community movements. In institutional work only two men and two women of the 43 reporting had college degrees. TABLE 14.-COLLEGE EDUCATION OF PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL WORKERS, BY TYPE OF ORGANIZATION Professional workers in each specified type of organization, who have had College education o cAlle Type of organization oee No college ers Graduate Non-graduate education Men Women Men | Women Men Women INSTITUTIONAL WORK 2 2 I I 2 35 5 38 OTHER WORK WITH INDIVIDUALS Settlements and clubs 5 8 I 3 14 9 32 Educational agencies 10 4.15.. 29 Relief and rehabilitation societies 20 57 3 25 i8 141 41 223 Agencies for immigrants 3 6 13 4 22 4 Agencies for children I 33 6. 68 I 107 P Correctional agencies I 3..2 3 3 6 Agencies for the sick or defective 2 2 I. 2 24 5 26 Employment agencies. 6....Io All other I........ 5 I 5, Total 33 129 I 35 38 278 82 442 COMMUNITY MOVEMENTS Research and educational propaganda: General social conditions 36 21.. 3 3 II 39 35 Health 13. 4 I 3 3 20 4 Industry I I.... I I 2 Education. 42.. 4.. 15. 6 Recreation 8 2.... I.9 2 All other 6 5.. 2 7 9 12 Total 64 71 5 8 9 37 78 16 Grand total 99 202 17 44 49 350 I65a 596b ~~~~~~~~ --- — -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-7I 350 / 1658 1 596b~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ a Of the 170 men workers on full time who supplied individual schedules, 5 did not give information as to schooling. b Of the 609 women workers on full time who supplied individual schedules, 13 did not give information as to schooling. POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 45 Table 15 contains facts about the salaries of college graduates compared with those who have had no further education than that given in private or public schools. Of the sixteen women reporting a salary of $2,000 or more, twelve had attended college, five of them graduating. The median salary group for those who have had no college training was between $800 and $900, and for the college graduates, between $I,ooo and $I,200. For men, the median for college graduates is between $2,000 and $2,400, and for those who have had no college training, between $900 and $I,000. Of course it is not claimed that the educational preparation is the only factor in producing these differences. The variations in salary are due rather to differences in type of work, but the degree and quality of education is important in determining the type of position for which the man or woman may be qualified and this results in difference in salary. Before considering the data as to professional training for social work, it is well to remember that the schools for social workers are of comparatively recent origin and that until a short time ago experience in an organization was the only possible means of securing specific training. Training in the law was once obtained in law offices and yet today the necessity for training in a law school is not challenged. Vocational schools for social workers are now somewhat in the position of law schools forty years ago.* That a large proportion of social workers have gained efficiency through actual experience rather than through a vocational course is no more cogent an argument against the * In a discussion of training for social work at the National Conference of Charities and Correction in Baltimore, May, 1915, Felix Frankfurter, professor of law, Harvard Law School, made the following statement: "The course of legal education in the United States has three periods. The first step is that of apprenticeship. You were articled to a practicing lawyer; you copied his pleadings (and the better your handwriting the better fitted you were for your task); you picked up the knacks and tricks of his dealings with people; read in his chambers, and established a personal relationship from which intellectual equipment followed. Judge Reeve, of Connecticut, personifies the next stage-the establishment of private proprietary law schools. At the end of the eighteenth century, Judge Reeve founded the famous school at Litchfield, Connecticut, and others followed. Soon it came to be felt that law had as much title to university consideration as other recognized professional pursuits. And so, with the establishment of the Harvard Law School, in 1817, we reach the third step in legal education, namely, the recognition by our universities of the obligation of training men fit to practice and administer law. Present day legal education dates from 1871 when a new method of legal training was adopted at the Harvard Law School."-Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, I915, p. 59I. TABLE 15.-ANNUAL SALARIES OF PROFESSIONAL WORKERS IN SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS, BY COLLEGE EDUCATION Professional workers earning the specified annual salary who have had College education, All workers Annual salary No college College education education Graduate Non-graduate Men Women Men Women Men Women Men Women Less than $300 2 8. 2 2 10 $400 and less than $600 2 32. 3 I 4 3 49 c $600 and less than $800 i8 io8 9 39 5 II 32 158 $800 and less than $I,000 6 79 7 39 I 9 14 127 $I,000 and less than $I,200 I 46 32 I 5 6 83 $I,200 and less than $I,400 6 46 I0 35 3 12 19 93 $1,400 and less than $I,6oo 2 I0 4 21 I. 2 6 33 $I,600 and less than $2,000 2 I0 5 8 I 2 8 20 $2,000 and less than $2,400 I 3 9 I I 7 II II $2,400 and less than $3,ooo 3.. 15 2.. 8 2 $3,000 and less than $4,000 I.. I3 2 I.. 15 2 $4,000 and less than $5,ooo 2.. 9.. I $5,000 or more.. I 6..... 6 I Total 46 343 9I I94 I4 52 5Ia 589a a Of the 779 workers on full time who supplied individual records, 2I did not state salaries and i8 did not mention last school attended POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 47 desirability of training than the similar situation in the legal profession when the law schools were beginning their work. Of the 779 social workers reporting on this point, 162 had had some courses in training schools for social workers, including those in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis, New York, and London, with the New York school claiming the largest group. Ten men and 26 women had taken the regular course in the New York school. The salaries of these men ranged from $780 to $3,600, with the median between $I,200 and $1,400. For the 26 women, with salaries ranging from $420 to $I,8oo, the median was between $I,ooo and $I,200, a figure identical with the median for college trained women. The median salary for the women who had had no courses whatever, either regular or special, was between $900 and $I,000 and for the men, between $I,200 and $I,400. Evidently those women who have attended courses of training are above the average in earning capacity, while the men seem to be slightly below the average. When we realize that practically all of the men in the most important executive positions began their careers before the schools of philanthropy were in existence, we could scarcely expect a better showing in salary attainments among the small group of trained workers whose experience so far has been comparatively brief.* A fair proportion of the social workers reported professional or technical training in other lines or graduate collegiate work, as Table I6 shows. Teaching heads the list with business training second and trained nursing third. Theology, law, and medicine have each had a contribution to make. Less than half as many have had courses in schools for social work as have been trained for other vocations. A group of 83 men and women had taken graduate college courses, and 12 men and 2 women reported Ph.D. degrees. The majority had held positions before entering the organizations with which they are now identified. Of the 775 reporting * In a recent bulletin of the New York School of Philanthropy (January, I915-Vol. VIII, No. 2) results of questionnaires sent out to their 235 graduates are given. Of this number, 37 men and 80 women are in paid positions in social work in various parts of the country. The salaries of the 25 men reporting on this point range from $900 to $3,600. For the 6I women reporting, the salary range was from $500 to $I,800, with 30, or about half, earning from $I,200 to $I,800, I8 earning $900 to $1,200, and 13 earning less than $900. 48 POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK on this point, only 141 had had no previous experience, but 260 others had had no experience in social work. Many different occupations were represented in the past histories of work done, but those most frequently named were teaching, nursing, stenography, secretarial work and business and clerical positions, work in public health organizations, newspaper work, library work and editing. TABLE I6.-SUPPLEMENTARY EDUCATION OF PROFESSIONAL WORKERS IN SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS, BY SEX Workers who have had specified supplementary education Supplementary education Men Women Total TRAINING IN SCHOOLS FOR SOCIAL WORK 30 132 162 OTHER PROFESSIONAL OR TECHNICAL TRAINING Teaching 4 o16 IIo Commercial subjects 12 78 90 Trained nursing.. 69 69 Domestic science.. 8 18 Theology 13 5 18 Law 15 I 16 Art, design, interior decoration. 6 16 Library work.. 12 12 Medicine 4 5 9 Eugenics and allied scientific work I 5 6 All other 4 I5 19 Total who have had other professional or technical training 51 293 344 GRADUATE COLLEGE WORK Without degree 23 29 52 With master's degree 23 14 37 With doctor's degree 12 2 14 Total who have done graduate work 39 44 83 SUPPLEMENTARY NON-PROFESSIONAL STUDY BY NON-GRADUATES OF COLLEGE. 37 37 Total reporting supplementary education IO4 436 540a a Of the 779 workers on full time who supplied individual records, 2 men failed to give information as to supplementary education, and 64 men and 173 women had had no such training. Tables 17 and 18 show the length of experience of the workers in their present places of employment and their salaries. POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 49 TABLE I7.-ANNUAL SALARIES OF WOMEN SOCIAL WORKERS BY NUMBER OF YEARS WITH ORGANIZATION Women earning specified salary who have been with organization I 2 3 5 10 All Annual salary Less year years years years years 20 than and and and and and years women I less less less less less or year than than than than than more 2 3 5 1o 20 Less than $400 2 I 2 I 2 3. I $400 and less than $600 22 II 5 3 I 5 2 49 $600 and less than $800 72 30 Io 19 I9 8 3 i6i $800 and less than $I,ooo I9 29 36 17 i6 5 5 127 $I,ooo and less than $I,200 10 9 I5 II I9 I3 6 83 $I,200 and less than $I,400 7 1I 17 I6 28 12 2 93 $I,4oo and less than $I,600 4 3 5 Io 6 3 3 34 $I,600 and less than $2,ooo. 3 4 9 2 I 20 $2,000 and less than $2,400. 3.... 6 I I I I $2,400 and less than $3,ooo000.. 2.. 3 $3,000 or more. I.. I I~ 3 Total 136 98 94 82 107 55 23 595a a Of the total number of women, 609, 7 did not give information as to salaries, and 7 did not state years with organization. TABLE I8.-ANNUAL SALARIES OF MEN WORKERS BY NUMBER OF YEARS WITH ORGANIZATION Men earning specified salary who have been with organization I 2 3 5 o All Annual salary Less year years years years years 20 than and and and and and years men I less less less less less or year than than than than than more 2 3 5 10 20 Less than $400 I......... 2 $400 and less than $600 2.... I.. 3 $600 and less than $800 13 6 I 3 4 3 2 32 $800 and less than $i,ooo 4 4. 2 2 13 $I,ooo and less than $I,200 2 3 I. I. 7 $I,200 and less than $,400 5 3 4 2 5 19 $1,400 and less than $I,600 3. I I 2 7 $I,600 and less than $2,000 I 3. 4 9 $2,000 and less than $2,400 3 2 5 I... I $2,400 and less than $3,ooo 4 I 4 6 3 i8 $3,ooo and less than $4,ooo I 3 I 3 7 15 $4,000 and less than $5,ooo.. 2 4 3 1 $5,000 or more 2. 2.. 3 I 6 Total 39 26 21 25 31 8 3 I53a a Of the total number of men, 170, 14 did not give information as to salaries and 3 did not state years with organization. 50 POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK Of the 595 women, 136 had been with the present organization less than a year, and of the 153 men, 39 had had so brief a term of service. Only I I men and 78 women had been identified with the same society ten years or longer. For the women the median salary for those employed less than a year was between $600 and $800, for those between one and two years and two and three, the median was between $800 and $I,OOO, and for each succeeding group, between $I,o00 and $I,200. It is evident that other factors besides length of service determine increases. The lowest salary group has representatives of those whose terms of employment have been ten years or longer, and the higher salaries are distributed in groups with varying periods of service. Among the men the medians show no consistent variations according to length of employment. It is not necessary or, probably, desirable that salary increases should depend primarily upon length of service, but in a profession the ideal condition would seem to insure increasing compensation for the increasing value which experience ought to bestow on properly selected workers. Few executives could make any definite statement as to a plan of promotion, although a number indicated that it would be better for the organization to have such a policy formulated, and in at least one instance a plan of minimum and maximum in different positions is being tried. OTHER CONDITIONS OF WORK In addition to the information about salaries and training, facts were gathered regarding vacations, medical examinations, provision for leave of absence for sickness, pensions and hours of work. Vacations tend to vary in length for different positions in the same organization. Of 245 agencies reporting, 18 gave no vacation with pay, I gave a minimum of less than two weeks, 81 two to three weeks, 2I three to four weeks, and 114, the largest group, gave four weeks or more. Of those reporting the maximum vacations, the majority, 154, gave four weeks or more. One organization has an interesting plan for superintendents and assistants, whereby two weeks with pay may be taken in addition to the month, or may be saved to make possible a more extended leave in one year, not exceeding ten weeks. The same society has a plan to allow workers to take time off for professional training at half the salary rate. Few organizations had a fixed policy regarding leave of absence POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 5I for sickness. One reported twelve days with pay, another two weeks to one month, another seven days with the possibility of extended leave without salary through a longer illness, another one to two months at the discretion of the director. In other agencies, each case is decided on its merits, without reference to an established custom. It is becoming more and more general in the larger organizations to require medical examination when a worker is engaged. Twenty agencies reported such a plan. In some cases periodical medical examinations at the expense of the organization are permitted though not required for all employes. Twelve agencies give pensions, the majority retiring workers according to plans made by the trustees in individual instances. A number of the executives are much interested in the problem but as yet no plan has been adopted which could be considered a comprehensive pension system. The usual working day in the larger social agencies is from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon with an hour for lunch, or seven hours of work. In settlements and in some institutions the hours are so irregular that no such definite count can be made. Of I45 agencies reporting definite schedules, the hours were less than seven daily in 17, seven to eight in 84, eight to nine in 22, nine to ten in 7 and ten or longer in 15. SUMMARY A comparison of the number of social workers counted in our study with the numbers in other professions recorded in the United States census shows that the salaried workers in the private philanthropies of New York City are as numerous as authors, editors, and reporters, or civil engineers and surveyors; that they are a larger group than the clergymen, architects, dentists, or chemists; that they number about half as many as the physicians and surgeons, and two-fifths of the number of lawyers, judges and justices.* If to the social workers in private agencies we add those in government service, social work takes rank numerically with the most important of the recognized professions. A large majority of the social workers, 2,666 of the 3,968 counted, are in organizations dealing primarily with individuals, * Thirteenth United States Census, I9IO. Population. Vol. IV, Occupation Statistics, pp. 19I-2. Since these professions are older and more clearly defined, the census count is probably more accurate than for social workers. 52 POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK besides 801 who are in institutions, while 501 are engaged in general social betterment. Those who are interested in the development of scientific methods of individual case treatment will find in these figures ample evidence of the importance of their work. As social work deals with human relationships, with community relationships, and with the development and education of public opinion, its subject matter is not less important than that of the teacher, the lawyer or the physician. As in accomplishing its purposes it must utilize and apply the principles of education, of psychology, of biology and of many other branches of knowledge, and must employ the methods of the scientific investigator or the diagnostician, its technique may be compared with that of other professions. Recognition of the underlying principles of this vocation depends, however, rather more upon realization of its aims than upon the evidence of requirements as they now exist. The newer societies, representing new community movements and new methods of meeting old conditions, have, on the whole, higher standards both of compensation and of qualifications for workers; while in the older societies the tendency toward higher salary rates and new requirements was made clear in the course of the inquiry. The salary range is wide, with $o0,000 as the maximum. In twenty-one organizations a maximum of $5,000 or more is paid. In addition, 3 institutions pay a cash salary of $5,000 or more besides maintenance. Of the women reporting their salaries, 59 per cent earned less than $I,000, and Io per cent earned $I,500 or more. The highest salary recorded for a woman was $5,000. The median salary group for women was between $900 and $I,ooo. Of the men, 33 per cent earned less than $I,ooo and 50 per cent earned $I,500 or more. The groups of college graduates received higher salaries than those who had not attended college. Among the women the median salary group of the college graduates was between $I,ooo and $I,200, and of those who had not been to college, between $800 and $900. For men, the median for college graduates was between $2,000 and $2,400 and for those who had had no college training, between $900 and $I,ooo. No attempt has been made here to outline opportunities in different branches of social work. On the contrary, we have tried to view the field as a whole and to discover the prevailing POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 53 standards. The more closely the records are studied the more artificial seems the current tendency to consider social workers as specialists, representing a variety of types of work, merely because their tasks happen to differ one from another under the present development of different kinds of organizations. Fundamentally the purposes are alike or so closely related as to demand consideration of their essential similarity. Recognition of this similarity would tend to develop greater breadth of view in planning programs of action, and wider vision in formulating social philosophy. Perhaps the most lasting impression made by this study of salaries and qualifications in social work is the evidence of changing standards. How far these tendencies can be guided by new policies of training or recruiting or promoting workers, and how far the possibility of effective training and recruiting depends upon the recognition implied in salary standards, are questions of prime importance in the future development of this, the newest of the professions. 54 POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK SCHEDULE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT ORGANIZATIONS STUDY OF OPPORTUNITIES IN SOCIAL WORK UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE NEW YORK SCHOOL OF PHILANTHROPY AND THE INTERCOLLEGIATE BUREAU OF OCCUPATIONS Name of Institution Address When Type of Institution founded Purpose Kind of work done No. dealt How financed with DEPARTMENT List of salaried No. Salary workers positions M.W.recruited? "^ S ^ M^W. S^ ^ge ilnd of work done ^S~i~eT "._._ |_ ~Medical..... - - i examination? __ - --- --------- I How are higher positions filled? Hours of work Length of vacation With Without pay pay Sick leave i i i — i i i i i I i - i i I I Provisions for Pensions training workers If volunteers are used, how many and for what? Plan of promotion DATE INVESTIGATOR SOURCE OF INFORMATION DATE INVESTIGATOR SOURCE OF INFORMATION POSITIONS IN SOCIAL WORK 55 SCHEDULE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL WORKERS STUDY OF OPPORTUNITIES IN SOCIAL WORK UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE NEW YORK SCHOOL OF PHILANTHROPY AND THE INTERCOLLEGIATE BUREAU OF OCCUPATIONS Note that names of holders of positions are not asked. Schedules to be returned to office of organization or to Florence Woolston, Intercollegiate Bureau of Occupations, 130 East 22nd Street, New York. Name of institution.......................Address.............Department......... 1. What is the title of your position? A. Man? Woman? 2. What is your annual salary? 3. What are your duties in the position? 4. How long have you been with this organization? 5. What was your general education? If a graduate of private school, high school or college name the institution and give date of graduation and degrees. 6. What training for social work did you have? If a graduate of a training school give name of institution and date of graduation. 7. What other professional, technical or business training have you had? Name of institution and date of graduation. 8. What has been your experience before employment here? A. How many years in social work? B. What types of social work? C. How many years in other paid occupations? D. What types of occupations? 9. What other experience or qualifications have been useful to you in your work? -iz-' I \ f 0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I I sxs~r;iznRr:I eh " y~- i? t P si.-~ fr"l i r. ~~ p ii ~- ~i" ~' "I 2; I-, 3 90J o1UIVERIY IF MICHIGAN1 3 9015 02511 3740 I I. t j' t I- a. r:: -:;.:; *; -~^\::::..:,:... 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