About Us
What is BUMP?
Bring Up Minimum Pay (BUMP) is a campaign bringing together nonprofits, labor unions, advocates, and workers united to win dignity, stability, and a living wage for New York State’s essential human services workforce.
Human service workers care for children, people with disabilities, older adults, and families in crisis. They perform life saving work. Yet poverty wages paid by state contracts make it impossible to afford housing and other basic necessities, drive high turnover and staff shortages, and disrupt care families rely upon.
About Us
Our Goal
Guarantee Annual Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs)
One in five care workers lives below the poverty line, and 88% earn less than New York’s cost of living. Caregivers cannot be their best if they are struggling to make ends meet and unable to provide for their own families.
A Base Wage That Overcomes the “Benefits Cliff”
Low wages have led to high turnover and widespread job vacancies, too often leaving New York’s families without child care or elder care when they need it most. Higher wages attract and retain talented workers who stay and grow in their jobs year after year, ensuring reliable and quality care.
Build Fair Wages into Government Contracts
Higher wages allow people to not only pay rent and put food on the table, but also to pay down debt, build savings, and escape the “poverty premium” of high fees and predatory lenders. Just a $1 bump in minimum wage can lead to a 40% decrease in use of payday loans.*
* Chicago Federal Reserve
Join Us In Fighting For Equity
With your support, the BUMP campaign will ensure the same New Yorkers who work so hard every day to help families struggling with poverty aren’t forced to live on poverty wages themselves.
Data and research sourced from CUNY Institute for Local & State Governance’s Regional Human Services Labor Market Analysis in New York State, unless otherwise noted.