One Job Should Be Enough

cross New York, School-Related Professionals, direct service providers and healthcare professionals are facing a fundamental problem: their paychecks don’t cover the cost of living.

As the gap between what workers earn and what basic necessities cost continues to widen, more families find themselves pitched into the chasm between. In 2023, 48 percent of households, or 3.7 million families, couldn’t afford basics; that’s up from 44 percent in 2010.

Mashantuck Bell, treasurer of the Paraprofessional Chapter of the United Federation of Teachers, estimates that half her membership holds a second job.

“Some of them depend on SNAP benefits,” said Bell. “They’re going to other resources, like food pantries, to get enough food. They’re going to family members for help. Some even, they might not say it, but they may have to leave their apartment and go stay with someone else because rent is so high.”

Every day across New York, essential lower-wage professionals work tirelessly to take care of others, but don’t get paid enough to take care of themselves.

“One job should be enough, yet we know the reality facing too many of our members, workers who dedicate 40, 50 and more hours a week, still cannot afford to make ends meet,” said Karen McLean, secretary-treasurer of the Herricks Teachers Association and chair of NYSUT’s SRP Advisory Committee. “The system has tilted so far out of balance that a full-time job may no longer guarantee stability, much less dignity.”

The issue prompted Kim McEvoy, SRP At-Large Director on the NYSUT Board and a member of the Rondout Valley Federation of Teachers to introduce the One Job Should Be Enough resolution at the 2025 Representative Assembly. The resolution asserts that every job should pay a living wage; it passed by delegates overwhelmingly.

“School-Related Professionals and healthcare workers, we work hard. We love what we do and we’re the backbone of our schools, and we need to be recognized for our value,” McEvoy said. NYSUT has since launched the One Job Should Be Enough campaign, which will shine a light on critical — yet chronically underpaid — professionals and the challenges they face.

“Many are working full-time, some for decades, yet still struggle trying to make ends meet under the weight of low wages,” said Second Vice President Ron Gross, who helped roll out the NYSUT campaign at the RA.

One Job Should Be Enough was also the theme of this year’s SRP Leadership Conference, which brought members together in November to learn how to win victories at the negotiating table and ballot box.

Today, 14 percent of New Yorkers live below the federal poverty line of $32,150 for a family of four, but another 33 percent are ALICE, or Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, a designation that means they are working people who earn above the federal poverty level but don’t make enough to cover basic needs.

Based on the actual costs of housing, childcare, food, healthcare, transportation, taxes and other expenses, ALICE calculates that a survival budget for a family of four in New York is closer to $104,000 than $30,000. This is a 248 percent gap between the actual cost of living and the federal poverty line. Meanwhile, the median household income is $60,000 — below a survival budget.

Shelvy Young-Abrams, a pioneer among SRPs who began her career as a paraprofessional in New York City in 1968 making 35 cents an hour and went on to champion workers’ rights as chair of UFT’s Paraprofessional Chapter from 2006 to 2022, said single parents and their children are disproportionately affected by low wages.

“It takes two people in a household to make enough income to take care of their families. However, a lot of our women are head of household, and the money that they make now doesn’t cut it,” said Young-Abrams. “You can’t expect people to work two jobs, three jobs, and raise a family.”

“I think for everyone having more than one job has become the norm,” said Lisa Bender, vice president of the Frontier Central Employees Association. “I have three jobs.”

Bender said many aides like her at Frontier Central Schools moonlight as waitresses and home health aides. Often, that contributes to retention issues, with overtired workers burning out. “We need help to make them stronger and able to stay. We don’t want them to leave because of money when we know they love what they do,” she said.

Second and third shifts also take their toll on families. “You have behavior challenges because children want mommy or daddy,” said Bell. “Sometimes mommy and daddy are too tired when they get home. They can’t support them in their assignments. It’s not that they don’t want to, it’s just that they are too overworked.”

At this year’s SRP Leadership Conference, members attended workshops on income inequality, local elections, as well as a two-part “Contract Campaign Primer” to help local leaders negotiate stronger contracts. SRPs were also given the new One Job Should Be Enough toolkit, which shows members how to use data, personal stories and action strategies to win significant wage increases.

Workers say education has to be appropriately funded.

“What we really need to do is fund education at the federal and state level,” said Mark Warner, second vice president for Syracuse TA – Unit 8, which represents assistants, monitors and attendants. “It costs money to educate people, and we need that support.”