Effective this month, all Guild employees will make at least $20 per hour (up from $17) as part of the organization’s continued investment in its people and the long-term sustainability of its critical lifesaving services. In addition to increasing pay for our lowest-wage workers, we are also giving proportional wage increases to front-line staff across the organization, resulting in pay increases for 70% of our workforce with a nearly $350,000 investment.
Guild is taking this leap because we are committed to investing in a stable and healthy workforce and to compensation that reflects the training and experience of our staff, as well as the difficulty and importance of their work. Many of our staff have master’s degrees in social work, marriage and family therapy or psychology, and manage a highly emotional, unpredictable, high-touch caseload for which they have not historically been properly compensated.
This $3 per-hour increase and proportional increases more broadly represents a significant expense to Guild, and is critical to our sustainable future. This is just the beginning of a set of investments in our workforce and our business and is part of a multi-pronged approach that includes:
- Advocating for regulatory/policy changes to increase state reimbursement for services
- Investing in philanthropy to grow our community of supporters and broaden their engagement in our mission beyond financial transactions
- Building the agency’s infrastructure to support growth, expand our service portfolio, and scale the services and programs in which we excel
We encourage you to learn more about this news in our CEO Julie Bluhm’s recent LinkedIn article—Taking a bold step forward in the midst of uncertainty.
If you’d like to learn more about how you can support Guild during this critical time, we encourage you to advocate, learn, and give. Let your legislators know that mental health and housing are important to you. Learn about community-based mental health organizations and how your support can make a difference And join our giving community. A gift of any amount goes a long way to help us ensure a sustainable, bright future of empowering people and empowering change.