Underpaid and understaffed: The highest possible level of professional exhaustion exists in all areas of social work

dossier

"A study on the situation in social work reveals a dramatic situation: The risk of burnout among employees is extremely high. In all areas of social work there is the highest possible level of professional exhaustion. This is illustrated by the study "Professional crisis after Corona? Need for control in social work after the pandemic (CriCo)" (...) The first study results show that many employees have often skipped the legally required rest breaks since the outbreak of the pandemic in order to complete the existing work. 40 percent of those surveyed stated that they regularly work three or more additional hours per week. Over 60 percent often or very often push themselves to the limits of their performance…”ver.di press release from December 28, 2022 and more about it:

• Systemic errors in social work: Precarious working conditions in daycare centers, youth welfare offices and integration assistance now also affect those in care
  • Reality check social work: 81 percent of teams need more staff
    “Many tasks, too few hands: The ver.di reality check for social work shows how much of a burden the lack of staff puts on employees in daycare centers and youth welfare offices. 373 teams report an increasing amount of work and compromises in quality. ver.di demands binding staffing and well-trained staff.
    For the social work reality check, ver.di, together with Fulda professor Nikolaus Meyer and Mannheim professor Yalçın Kutlu, collected and evaluated 373 team opinions from work areas such as daycare centers and youth welfare offices this summer. Questions were asked about staffing, workload, income, employment security and the future of the respective institution.(…)
    Vacancies, absences due to illness, staff transfers and poor staffing ensure permanent understaffing, said the trade unionist. This forces employees to work under very high levels of stress, which in turn leads to illness and fluctuation. "To remedy this, we are calling for binding staffing and appropriate staffing levels. In addition, employees need relief in order to be able to work healthily and reach retirement age in their profession."
    Challenges in social work
    The survey also shows that cases in social work are becoming increasingly complex. This also has to do with the fact that everyday life and the lives of many of those in need of care are characterized by poverty, unemployment, flight and war. "In this situation, which would be made even worse by a dismantling of the welfare state, our demand is clear," says Behle: "We need well-trained staff. The state must not skimp on qualifications." The employees themselves are the experts, supported by their company representatives and their union. Falling numbers of children must now be used to increase staffing ratios.
    Another finding of the reality check is the concern of employees about their jobs and their design. Many do not feel sufficiently informed about how their institutions are being restructured, for example due to demographic developments or reform laws. “It is necessary for employees to participate in the corresponding negotiation processes,” concludes Behle.”ver.di message from September 16, 2026 with theReality check in detail, see also:
  • Systemic errors in social work
    “Precarious working conditions in daycare centers, youth welfare offices and integration assistance are now having an impact on those in care. The Verdi union sounds the alarm.
    A daycare child who leaves the premises unnoticed by those in his care and wanders around a northern German city alone. A person in integration assistance to whom you have to explain the basic aspects during induction - for example in which order you wash the body of a person being cared for. An employee in the youth welfare office who doesn't take the time to analyze in detail whether she should remove a child from a household or not. It's not the fault of the colleagues, says Stefanie Lehmann from the daycare center in Bremen. »This is a system error.« (…)
    This not only puts a strain on employees, but also affects the professional quality of care, the realization of the rights of children, young people and families and the reliability of social infrastructure. In many cases, only people in absolute emergencies are cared for, such as child endangerment. Some youth welfare offices are already talking about triage.
    The Fulda Professor of Social Work, Nikolaus Meyer, and the Mannheim Professor of Macrosociology, Yalçın Kutlu, collected and evaluated opinions from 373 teams in different areas of social work for the union over the summer. The idea: “To make working conditions visible together,” explains Kutlu. 97 percent of the responses come from West Germany. (…)
    In the youth welfare offices, workers now assume that tasks are being shifted to their area because other contacts are not sufficiently available. At the same time, the increased responsibility is not adequately compensated. Employees are less concerned about the level of remuneration than the disproportion between the increased complexity and their classification. In the daycare centers, 84.1 percent of the teams report working despite illness. Employees there particularly criticize the fact that the declining number of children is not being used for smaller groups, but is being linked to group closures, reductions in space or possible job cuts. It was only at the beginning of September that the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband's daycare quality report found that around 550,000 daycare places nationwide remained unused. But that doesn't mean that the shortage of skilled workers has been eliminated. (…)
    Cuts in the social sector, increased work due to the revised child and youth welfare law and additional pressure due to the new daycare quality law would have the opposite effect, criticizes Behle from Verdi. Employees see the best solutions in staffing, additional positions, a smaller amount of work and adequate pay and classification. “If the social infrastructure is to be reliable, the working conditions must also be reliable,” demands Kutlu.”Article by Sarah Yolanda Koss from September 16, 2026 in ND online 
• Study: 17 percent less earnings in the social sector – despite high demand
  "According to a study, the approximately three million employees in the social sector in Germany earn an average of 17 percent less than employees in other areas. In addition, changing working hours, high fluctuation and part-time work are the order of the day for more employees than in the rest of the economy. This emerges from the study presented today "Before the collapse? Employment in the social sector", which was commissioned by the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB) and the German Red Cross. Whether in childcare, geriatric and nursing care or social work - the need for social work has increased significantly in recent years. The number of employees has increased by one million from two million since 2010, but there is still a serious shortage of personnel. (…) One in two people in the social sector works part-time despite the lack of staff - also because of the high workload, it goes on to say. Shift and night work is common for more than twice as many people as in other sectors. High levels of sickness and absenteeism also mark the social sector. (…) The researchers speak of the “care pay gap”: Put bluntly, full-time jobs in the social sector are paid far less and are therefore less valued than in other sectors. (…) The German Red Cross called on politicians to provide more resources for the social sector. “In the end, it is political decisions and actors such as municipalities, health insurance companies, states and the federal government that play a decisive role,” said DRK department head Joß Steinke. He is a co-author of the study.” Report from March 18, 2024 on Deutschlandfunk , see at DRK:
  • Crisis in the social sector: “The greatest risk is that basic social services will disappear”
    “Current studies show that the social sector is doing poorly when it comes to competition for workers. In some cases, staff shortages are already affecting the provision of important social services. A team of authors from research and practice has now come together to pool their expertise on this topic. In their book, which is published today, Christian Hohendanner, Jasmin Rocha and Joß Steinke paint a bleak picture of what could happen to the German welfare state without fundamental political measures. At the same time, they show ways to prevent social collapse…”Guest article and interview by Christiane Keitel from March 18, 2024 in drk-wohlfahrt.de to:
  • Hohendanner, Christian; Rocha, jasmine; Steinke, Joß (2024):Before the collapse!? Employment in the social sector. Empirical measurement and approaches . Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
• Results of the study "Professional crisis after Corona? Need for control in social work after the pandemic (CriCo)": Employees at the limit
  “Employees in social work in Germany are at their limit: This is what a nationwide joint effort led by Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Meyer (Fulda University) and Dr. The study carried out by Elke Alsago (United Services Union – ver.di) is clear.
  As a result of the current study presented today (March 21, 2023), the more than 8,200 social work employees surveyed show high levels of professional exhaustion and are already seeing their own performance reduced. Those particularly affected were employees in daycare centers, youth welfare offices, counseling centers, work with people with disabilities, all-day care at schools, school social work, home education, homeless assistance, social psychiatric services, social work with the unemployed, addiction/drug assistance, youth court assistance and open child and youth work. Accordingly, 60.8 percent of those surveyed nationwide currently feel that they are often or even very often at the limits of their performance. The risk of burnout among employees is high across all areas of social work. Particularly affected: public sector employees; no group in the study achieved such high stress levels.
  Across all areas of social work, more than a third (38.9 percent) of those surveyed regularly work three or more additional hours a week and over 65 percent of those surveyed are under time pressure in their work. (…)
  In order to change this problematic situation, ver.di is calling for the federal, state and local governments to join forces and to provide financial resources for the training and study of future specialists, the improvement of the staffing ratio and immediate measures to protect the health of employees in social work…”ver.di press release from March 21, 2023 
• Employees facing burnout – ver.di publishes the first preliminary results of a current study on the situation of employees in social work
  Further out of thever.di press release from December 28, 2022 :"... Particularly in daycare centers and youth welfare offices, employees complain that the urgently needed direct contact with legal guardians as well as children and young people has decreased. The deteriorating working conditions and the blatant shortage of personnel in the entire social work sector - according to the ver.di KITA personnel check, there is a lack of 175,000 skilled workers in daycare centers alone - are reflected in a high level of staff fluctuation. Only around one or one in four respondents had none in the last twelve months personnel changes in the team. A third of those surveyed have to work more because there are too few staff. (...) Meyer pointed out that different effects coincide: the shortage of skilled workers in the entire social work sector, the increase in people in need of support (23.5 percent), a deterioration in the living situation of existing recipients during the corona pandemic and a strong corona-related wave of illness among employees Breaks, it is no longer possible to meet the demands of their work. Accordingly, more than 77 percent of those surveyed would assume that they will not be able to continue working until they retire. The figure is even higher at 86.5 percent in the area of daycare centers. Behle called on employers to use the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations in the public sector to at least relieve employees of their financial worries and existential fears..."

See also:

• Dossier:Fire letter against social cuts: A protection fund for social institutions and services is needed
• Social work: Strong pay gap between public and independent providers. Trade union campaign in Berlin wants to change that
• Working conditions in social work using the example of Freiburg
• [Book] Worry Battles. Disputes over work in social services
• Social welfare in Germany: Low wages in a rapidly growing sector of the economy

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