• Brief

    • Essential but Undervalued: Systemic Barriers Facing Black Women in Social Work

    Jan 6, 2026

    Jennifer Turner, PhD, Salma Elakbawy

    Introduction

    Social workers are care professionals who provide services necessary to ensure our society remains functional and thriving. Nevertheless, they are underpaid compared to other workers with similar levels of education, often experience poor working conditions, and are frequently saddled with student loan debt.

    Black women have faced systemic racial and gender discrimination in the labor force, and although historically they have had high labor force participation rates, they tend to be overrepresented in care and service jobs. As such, an intersectional lens is key to understanding Black women’s experience in the social work profession, as they contend with racism, sexism, and microaggressions, face barriers to licensure, and often experience burnout brought on by workplace stress due to high caseloads, insufficient support, and vicarious trauma.

    Despite having to attain high levels of education as a professional requirement, Black women social workers are paid significantly less compared to other highly educated professionals. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research’s (IWPR) analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows a 22.2 percent gap in annual median earnings between Black social workers with master’s degrees ($70,000) and all other workers with master’s degrees ($90,000).

    In 2024, IWPR established an advisory board of social work professionals and leaders in workforce equity to understand key issues facing Black women social workers. Additionally, we conducted 10 stakeholder interviews with Black women social workers in late 2024 and early 2025. Based on discussions with the advisory board and stakeholder interview data, the biggest challenges facing Black women social workers include pay disparities, high student debt, barriers to licensure, and burnout.

     

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    Policy Recommendations

    Drawing on the expertise of the 10 women interviewed, professional association
    positions, and additional research and policy analysis, including IWPR’s Federal Policy Solutions to Advance Gender Equity series of policy briefs, IWPR recommends that policymakers, employers, and professional associations advance the following solutions to mitigate the challenges that Black women social workers face:

    • Pay Black women social workers commensurate with professionals in other fields with similar skill, training, and licensure requirements.
    • Reduce the student debt burden for Black women social workers.
    • Ensure fair reimbursement rates for Black women social workers.
    • Support workplace flexibility for Black women social workers and decrease overwhelming workloads.
    • Address barriers to licensure for Black women social workers.

    Pay Black women social workers commensurate with professionals in other fields with similar skill, training, and licensure requirements.

    Occupational segregation and the devaluation of care work, coupled with Black women’s overrepresentation in care and service work, mean that Black women social workers are disproportionately impacted by the field’s low wages, despite fulfilling one of the most important roles in our society. Persistent underinvestment in care work continues to harm families and the care workforce. Lawmakers must take steps to ensure that Black women social workers can earn a living wage, access good benefits, receive workplace protections, and have opportunities for career advancement.

    At a time when the wage gap is worsening for Black women, policymakers should support efforts to increase Black women’s access to equal pay. Black women working full-time year-round earn $1 million less over a 40-year career compared to White men, which means they have less money to invest in a mortgage, pay off student loan debt, and save for emergencies or retirement. Research shows that the gender gap in earnings is lower when there is transparency and when salaries for newly hired employees are not based on prior salaries. Congress can take steps to mitigate the wage gap for Black women by advancing salary history bans and salary transparency laws, which will help create pathways to better earnings for all workers.

    State salary transparency laws may help workers ensure that their earnings are fair and support them in negotiating for better pay. According to IWPR’s State Policy Action Lab, 17 states and Washington, DC, have enacted salary history bans, and 12 states and Washington, DC, have implemented salary transparency laws.

    Investment in minority- and women-owned businesses can also advance pay equity by expanding access to economic opportunity and lessening racial and gender wealth gaps. By expanding access to capital for women- and minority-owned private practices in mental health and social services, Black women social workers can thrive while simultaneously increasing access to these services for underserved populations. There is also evidence that wage boards, or “industry standards in which employers, worker advocates, and the government work together to establish job quality standards within an entire sector,” are beneficial at furthering pay equity in other care professions, so there may be an opportunity to explore their benefits for social work fields.

    I like to see the transparency with earnings . . . that helps us recognize what’s going on and how it’s not just the organization I work with, it’s organizations across the board. It also allows us to . . . band together and send messages informing organizations that these salaries are too low.
    ~Black woman, LCSW, school social worker

    Reduce the student debt burden for Black women social workers.

    Starting at the undergraduate level, Black women social workers are at a disadvantage compared to their counterparts. Due to systemic racial discrimination, Black families have far less wealth to draw from for college tuition. Black women in particular struggle with paying off student debt. Due to disproportionately high student debt, the low wages in the field of social work put Black women social workers at a greater financial disadvantage than their peers.

    To support Black women social workers with growing student loan debt, Congress must provide ongoing relief for existing borrowers. Student debt leads to negative long-term impacts on the financial decision-making, security, and stability of borrowers and their families.

    State policymakers can take action to support Black women’s access to higher education and loan repayment by supporting programs such as Illinois’ Human Services Professional Loan Repayment Program, which can lower financial barriers to social work and reduce the burden of student debt. With less student debt burden, Black women would be more financially stable in the field of social work, encouraging industry retention and expansion.

    The longer that human services work and social services are not funded well by state and federal governments, the longer Black women will also not be able to fully have the resources to take care of themselves and their families.
    ~Black woman, LMSW, former long-term care and hospice social worker

    Ensure fair reimbursement rates for Black women social workers.

    Human services organizations often rely heavily on government funding. Unfortunately, that funding often comes in the form of reimbursements, and those reimbursement rates are not always sufficient to provide employees with livable wages and adequate benefits. In New York City, for example, state contracts are chronically underfunded, resulting in many human services workers earning poverty wages and being unable to afford necessities. Low wages impact employee recruitment and retention and contribute to high turnover rates within organizations. Increasing reimbursement rates will help bring human services wages and benefits in line with current cost-of-living levels and help employers recruit and retain a talented workforce.

    At the federal level, the government should increase reimbursement rates for social workers. Under federal programs such as Medicare, clinical social workers are currently reimbursed at only 75 percent of the physician fee schedule. Policymakers should work to introduce legislation that increases social workers’ reimbursement rates to improve their recruitment and retention in the Medicare workforce, which could also expand provider options for populations that rely on these services.

    Support workplace flexibility for Black women social workers and decrease overwhelming workloads.

    Social workers generally experience high rates of burnout due to large workloads, high levels of workplace stress, and, in some cases, vicarious trauma. For Black women, this burnout is exacerbated by their intersectional experiences of racism and sexism in the workplace, and by not receiving enough support from their managers.

    To mitigate workplace stress, employers can offer flexible scheduling opportunities (including remote work) when feasible. Flexible work environments and fair pay are essential components to expanding protections for Black women in social work and allowing them to thrive. To ensure employees feel seen, heard, and valued, managers should schedule regular check-ins with employees to discuss their concerns and understand their needs, and organizations should evaluate compensation and benefits packages annually to assess whether adjustments are needed to ensure compensation remains reasonable and competitive. As part of benefits packages, employers should provide access to mental health services to support employees’ overall well-being.

    Guaranteeing employees have access to paid family and medical leave (PFML) is also essential to providing healthy work environments that enable Black women social workers to thrive. IWPR research shows that paid leave provides financial stability for workers and is cost-effective for employers while boosting labor force participation and economic growth.

    Congress must enact an evidence-informed national program that expands the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), guaranteeing a minimum of 12 weeks of paid leave covering a range of purposes for all workers, including contractors, part- and full-time workers, and public- and private-sector employees in all industries, regardless of employer size.

    Strengthening of FMLA should also expand the definition of “family” to ensure that workers can care for all those they consider family, provide wage replacement for all workers at a rate that is high enough for everyone (particularly low-income workers) to be able to afford to utilize the benefit, and include the right to return to work following leave, along with protections against employer retaliation and interference.

    State policymakers have a critical opportunity to advance PFML at the state level, particularly in the absence of federal guaranteed paid leave for workers. Twelve states and Washington, DC, have enacted PFML laws, and state legislators in another 18 states introduced PFML bills in 2025 alone.

    I found that in this role as a Black social worker, it’s more challenging than it needs to be because the expectation is that we will do more and that we will take it and not question, because . . . if you speak up too much, then you are a troublemaker and you are not a team player.
    ~Black woman, LCSW, federal employee

    Address barriers to licensure for Black women social workers.

    Black women social workers face barriers to obtaining licenses to practice social work. The Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) found that between 2018 and 2021, Black women’s first-time passage rates for Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and Licensed Master of Social Work (LMSW) exams were almost half that of White women’s (44.7 percent and 83.8 percent, respectively, for LCSW, and 45.1 percent and 85.6 percent, respectively, for LMSW). ASWB ascribes these disparities to socioeconomic hardship and ubiquitous racial and gender stereotypes impacting test takers’ confidence, and thus, their performance. However, social work organizations, such as the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW), the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work (NADD), and the National Association of Social Work (NASW) attribute these disparities in passage rates to fundamental biases in the exam.

    Although licensure is important for upholding the integrity of the profession, some advocates have called for an alternative to the ASWB exam. NABSW recommends that ASWB consider modular testing—or breaking down the exam into separate units—as an alternative to the traditional licensure exam. Illinois has removed the ASWB exam as a requirement for licensure. The state also offers an alternative pathway to licensure in which candidates must attempt to pass the licensure exam at least once, but if they don’t pass, they may instead complete 3,000 alternative exam hours. Providing alternative pathways to licensure is a key step toward advancing equity for Black women social workers.

    There should be an alternative way to demonstrate competency that is beyond the standardized test.
    ~Black woman, MSW, social work doctoral student, and nonprofit leader

    Conclusion

    Social workers provide essential services that contribute to the overall well-being of society; however, they are overworked, underpaid, and saddled with student debt. Black women social workers experience microaggressions and barriers to licensure, and tend to carry a very high workload, often leading to burnout. The recommendations presented in this brief offer ways for policymakers, employers, and professional associations to help Black women social workers achieve better pay and working conditions, reduce the burden of student debt, overcome barriers to licensure, and thrive in their professions.

    This brief was prepared by Dr. Jennifer Turner and Salma Elakbawy. It was made possible with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The authors would like to thank the project’s advisory board members for their help in developing this brief and the stakeholders whose insights informed the policy recommendations provided here. The authors would also like to thank Jesseca Boyer and Dr. Kate Bahn for their feedback on previous drafts, and Emme Rogers and Miranda Peterson for fact-checking.