Social Work Licensure: Earnings Premium and Gender Disparity

Objective: The social work profession pays less than other occupations with similar educational and training requirements and still penalizes women with lower pay. However, licensure has the potential to improve the earnings of social workers and affect gender disparity in earnings among licensed social workers. This study aims to estimate (a) the license-related earnings premiums of college-educated social workers and (b) the gender effect on earnings among licensed social workers. Method: We used a nationally representative sample of 1,515 U.S. social workers from the 2015–2019 Current Population Survey and conducted marginal treatment effect analyses. Results: The average license-related weekly earnings premium was $110 for all social workers and $128 for licensed social workers. Gender disparity in earnings was concentrated among licensed social workers. Conclusions: The size of license-related earnings premiums for social workers is within the range of the premiums reported in the literature. More studies are needed to identify mechanisms that perpetuate gender disparity in earnings among licensed social workers.