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A Book-Length Examination of Career Ladders
May 15, 2006
Moving Up in the New Economy: Career ladders for U.S. workers, a new book about the potential and limitations of career ladders, devotes an entire chapter to direct-care workers.
Career ladders can improve employees' skills, wages, and commitment to their employers, writes author Joan Fitzgerald. They are particularly effective for '[moving] impoverished workers who are now stuck in entry-level jobs into better jobs, if they have neither the education nor training for better jobs, nor the time and resources to acquire them.'
Fitzgerald identifies three types of career ladders, all of which are being used in health care: (1) increasing the pay and professionalism of direct-care jobs; (2) creating tiers within the profession to recognize skill increases and provide pay increases; and (3) advancing people into better-paying occupations that require more education. She explains how each works in the world of health care and long-term care services, illustrating them with real-world examples. She also identifies five features that successful programs generally share.
Fitzgerald says career ladders are underutilized, since they are used only sporadically and not always with the necessary supports. She outlines what's needed, both from employers and from policymakers, to make career ladders more pervasive - and more effective.
Elise Nakhnikian
Communications Specialist
Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute
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