For decades, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has systematically placed clinical social workers (CSWs) who serve in community-based clinics—represented by University Professional and Technical Employees CWA Local 9119 (UPTE-CWA 9119)—into lower-paying classifications than peers hired into UCSF Health’s medical centers.
Although our collective-bargaining agreement provides a single CSW wage structure, managers assign different job codes and step placements based solely on the clinic where a CSW is hired. Despite qualifications equal to or exceeding those of their colleagues in UCSF Health facilities, community-based CSWs are misclassified and placed on lower steps of the pay scale; on average, they earn 33 percent less than CSWs at the Medical Center. This inequitable practice contradicts UCSF’s PRIDE Values (Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Diversity, and Excellence) and persists even as the University profits from indirect costs and other revenues tied to the grants that fund many community-clinic positions.
UCSF’s pay inequities for community-based CSWs reinforce broader barriers to mental-health access for historically marginalized communities. Community teams experience dangerously high turnover rates as CSWs seek higher pay elsewhere to match their training and clinical expertise. When clinicians leave, those who remain face unsustainable caseloads, longer patient wait times, and worsening clinician-to-patient ratios—all of which reduce access to care and further fuel turnover.
We recognize the invaluable contributions of UCSF’s community-based CSWs, who work tirelessly to treat San Franciscans and Bay Area residents living with serious mental illness, substance-use disorders, and severe trauma. They also provide trauma-informed outreach on the streets and in cars, jails, and shelters to connect individuals with essential resources. These programs are vital to bridging generational inequities in mental-health access for historically marginalized communities.
We, the undersigned, denounce UCSF’s inequitable hiring, classification, reclassification, and step-placement practices for community-based CSWs. We urge UCSF to reclassify existing CSWs to steps commensurate with their experience and to implement a uniform hiring and classification policy across all mental- and behavioral-health titles at UCSF.