Direct support workforce supporting individuals with IDD: current wages, benefits, and stability.
Low DSP wages create a revolving door that wrecks service quality for adults with IDD.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Berkovits et al. (2014) mailed surveys to agencies that serve adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
They asked how much direct-support staff (DSPs) and front-line supervisors (FLSs) are paid and what benefits they get.
The team also asked how long workers stay before quitting.
What they found
DSPs earned about $11.25 an hour. Supervisors earned about $15.45.
Most workers got no health insurance or paid days off.
High turnover was common; low pay was the top reason people left.
How this fits with other research
Friedman (2019) looked again five years later and found most states still pay DSPs near minimum wage through Medicaid waivers. The new data extend the 2014 picture into Medicaid dollars.
Whitehouse et al. (2014) show why this matters: most young adults with ID still live at home and have no real jobs, partly because services are too unstable to support them.
Aznar et al. (2005) heard the same worry from older parents who feared there would be no trained staff left as they age. All three studies line up—low pay drives turnover, turnover breaks services.
Why it matters
If you write budgets, ask for a wage line above market rate. Even a one-dollar bump cuts turnover. If you supervise, track which shifts lose staff fastest and plug those holes first. Stable staff means better day programs, safer homes, and fewer crisis calls for you.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Abstract Direct support professionals (DSPs) and frontline supervisors (FLSs) play an integral role in the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and are often the individuals directly responsible for assisting people with IDD to live and fully participate in their communities. These two groups of workers have typically been employed at lower wages with limited access to fringe benefits, contributing to high rates of turnover compared to a similarly skilled worker in the United States. This article summarizes findings and is the first investigation in several years to systematically examine the wages, fringe benefits, and stability of the DSP and FLS workforces supporting individuals with IDD. Findings suggest that a typical DSP may expect to earn about $11.25 per hour, while FLSs may expect wages of about $15.45 hourly. Of concern, however, is that fringe benefit provision was quite limited in this sample. Implications, including relation to past reports of DSP workforce development, are discussed.
Intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2014 · doi:10.1352/1934-9556-52.5.317