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As a state employee at the Department of Housing and Community Development, Krystal Coles helps ensure counties have the funds to build affordable housing in California. Krystal's job is essential in helping working families who can't afford skyrocketing rents finally have a place to call home. "We're working to address one of the biggest crises Californians face—the high cost of housing," Krystal says. "We make sure that the housing is going to the people who need it and that people applying to live in these buildings don't face discrimination. But our wages are so low that we can't keep people in these jobs. That means we can't help as many families as we should." The stakes are incredibly high. Severe understaffing means many families and veterans are forced to live on the streets even longer.
In Maine, one in six positions in state government are vacant. These vacancies and high staff turnover have prevented people with serious mental illness from getting urgently needed support when they need it most.
As James Bailey, a licensed social worker at the Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center explains, "Because of understaffing, patients often end up on long waitlists for therapy, psychiatrists and case management. Psychiatric medication management is a very delicate balance and four weeks is a long time to go without the resources you need."
Allowing this crisis in state employment to persist puts all Americans at risk, depriving our communities of vital services we rely on everyday and leaving us without the essential workers needed to respond to crises resulting from extreme weather events, an economic downturn, or a natural disaster.
At the same time, low pay has forced many state workers to work two to three jobs to afford housing for themselves and their families, even as they shoulder ever-increasing workloads and mandatory overtime in their state jobs. These conditions particularly harm Black workers, who are disproportionately employed in public service.
That's why SEIU members like James and Krystal and other state workers are rising up, joining unions and taking action to push for change. Together, state employees are calling on their governments to recruit and retain essential employees so everyone can be healthy, safe, and strong.
Hundreds of thousands of state employee union members across the country are currently bargaining with their states for contracts that end poverty wages, investments in the tools and resources workers need to deliver top-notch services, and a commitment to address the crushing staffing shortages. State employees are also raising their voices together in rallies, lobby visits, and other actions, fighting to ensure every job is a good union job and every community has the essential services families need.
The solution is clear. Recent studies by economists in multiple states have concluded that these worker shortages can largely be attributed to low pay and lack of benefits in state employment. According to a 2023 study by UC Berkeley, California pays more than 68,000 state employees wages so low that they can't afford to support a family of two.
It's time for lawmakers to take action to change that. States must invest in the essential services communities need, pay people living wages, and make big corporations and the wealthy pay what they owe in state taxes.
That's how we create conditions where everyone can live up to their potential, where all working people are respected, protected, and paid what they need to support their families, and where we all have the essential services we need to thrive and remain safe and healthy.
Mary Kay Henry is the International President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a union of nearly two million diverse workers in healthcare, the public sector and property services.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
