Salary of Community Health Worker Overview

What is A community health worker?

Community health workers are supporters of the health of their communities. They work with both their community and health professionals to provide health and promote wellness. As such, the work of a CHW can take many forms. At-risk children, the HIV population, and prospective students are just a few examples of the groups they help.

Durrell Fox grew up in poverty. Although social justice and community development were his passions, he wanted to earn a decent salary to help support his family. “At the time, I didn’t know of any well-paying jobs working with youth or community outreach,” she wrote in an email. So Fox went to business school, earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration, and went to work for a telephone company.

And he hated it.

What she enjoyed most was volunteering with young people in Boston. So, after a few years of hating her job and loving volunteering, Fox quit her job with the phone company and went to work at a public health facility, taking a 50 percent pay cut to do so.

Since then, she has held many job titles, including Development Coordinator, Trainer, Community Liaison, Project Manager, and Associate. But basically, she was a full-time community health worker before the term was coined in 2000.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment growth of 15.9 percent for local health workers between 2021 and 2031. During this period, about 10,600 jobs should be created.

How much does a community health worker earn?

The median salary for social health workers in 2021 was $46,590. The top 25 percent earned $59,280 that year, while the bottom 25 percent earned $36,940.

How to become A community health worker?

Most community health workers have at least a high school diploma and sometimes a one-year certificate or two-year associate’s degree in health or some related subject field. When CHWs are hired, there is often some on-the-job training. But perhaps more important than any degree or qualification is a deep understanding of the community they seek to serve.

“The CHW profession is a calling, and I feel that those who become CHWs are most likely serving the community or should be involved in some capacity,” Fox says. “In other words, I believe that this is not a profession that you can simply join because of education or a degree.”

Job Satisfaction

The average American works well into their 60s, so workers may have an enjoyable and fulfilling career. A job with a low stress level, a good work-life balance, and strong prospects for improvement, promotion, and higher pay make many employees happy. Here’s how Community health workers Job satisfaction is rated in terms of upward mobility, stress level and flexibility.