The Goodman Community Center hosted a press conference on Tuesday where leaders from the organization announced a new internal minimum wage of $20 per hour. All current staff, excluding senior leadership (director and higher), saw a wage adjustment on their last paycheck, with some staff receiving up to an additional $5 per hour.
According to MIT’s living wage calculator, a “living wage” in Dane County to support a single adult with no children is $18.02 per hour. When just one child is added to the mix, that number goes up to $39.44.
In addition to the new $20 per hour minimum, staff will also have access to financial literacy education.
The Goodman Center has struggled to keep staff in direct service positions, particularly child care teachers who are feeling the stressful after-effects of the pandemic while being paid low wages. The center is hopeful that this wage increase will help stabilize staffing in critical direct service and frontline positions, creating consistency that will benefit the children and community members Goodman serves.
Open jobs at Goodman can be found at goodmancenter.org/careers.
Goodman will host a Job Fair & Open House on Thursday, July 20, 4:30-7 p.m. There will be staff on hand to answer questions about a variety of departments, as well as tours of our buildings and programs. All are welcome to attend.
