The Activity Issues Committee would like to thank Katharine O’Connell for the help she provided in setting up and compiling the results of WRAP’s Wage Survey. Please take note that the information she could obtain from the survey is not conclusive to all Wisconsin Activity Directors due to mainly two things.
Jean Curtis, Activity Issues Chair All analysis, coding, and interpretation By Katharine O’Connell, 2007 Overall Description Approximately 79 per cent of the respondents worked at SNFs, 18 per cent worked at CBRFs, 13 per cent worked at RCACs, 8% worked at adult daycare centers, and 7 per cent worked at other types of institutions, such as facilities with hospitals. The numbers will not add to one hundred per cent due to the fact that several facilities (about 16%) fell under more than one of these categories. The majority of facilities were nonunion (66%), and nonprofit (55%). Most of the respondents worked in suburban areas (35%), followed by rural areas (27%), small urban areas (25%), and large urban areas (12.5%). The average resident to staff ratios that were complied from this survey included: SNF facilities 1:25, CBRF’s 1:40, RCAC’s 1:43, Adult Daycares 1:28 and the average resident to staff ratio for other facilities was 1:61. These ratios can be interpreted as 1 staff per X residents. They are also not mutually exclusive. This means that the 1:25 ratio for SNF’s also included those facilities that were SNF’s and CBRF’s or SNF’s and RCAC’s, etc. The SNF number was based on 71 responses, the CBRF on 15 responses, the RCAC on 12 responses, the Adult Daycare on 6 responses and the “other” facility number was based on 6 responses. The average activity director had about 15 years of activity department experience, and about 16 years of experience in a nursing home. Half of the directors surveyed had more than 14 ½ years of experience in an activity department, and more than 15 ½ years of experience in a nursing home. The average director had at least one type of certification (55%), though 17 per cent had no certifications and about 29 per cent had two or three types of certification that was relevant to their position as an activity director. As for education, 21 per cent of directors have a high school diploma; while 26 per cent have some college experience. The majority had attained a bachelor’s degree of some sorts (42%), while a small number had either an associate’s degree (4%) or a post-baccalaureate degree (7%). The starting wage for activity directors ranged from 8.00 per hour to 27.00 per hour. The maximum amount a director could earn ranged from 8.50 per hour to 40.00 per hour. The average starting wage for activity directors was about 14.95 per hour, though at half of the facilities the starting wage is less than 15.00 per hour. The average maximum wage for activity directors was 18.71 per hour, and less than half of the directors have an earning potential of more than 18.00 per hour. Please note, however, that these numbers are most likely very skewed- those directors who reported their average wage, instead of a wage range, were considered to be reporting their starting wage. This would make the average starting wage higher than it actually is. In addition to this, many directors did not report a maximum wage. The average maximum wage numbers are based upon the 43 individuals who fully answered the question, whereas the average starting wage numbers are based upon the answers of 80 individuals. While information was obtained concerning the wage ranges of those activity department employees who are considered to be professionals, specialists, or activity aides was obtained through the survey, due to the small number of cases, these data will not be included in the final data analysis. For the averages and number of cases, please see Table 1. Unfortunately, I could not test all of these variables together at once. In order to get an accurate estimation, there needs to be a minimum of twenty cases for each variable included in the equation. Due to these constraints, the variables were divided into four different types of equations that were limited to a maximum of four variables each. Please keep in mind that the variables which are significant are only significant in combination with the other variables in the equation. For instance, if the variables from two of the equations were placed in the same equation, there would be completely different results. In addition to this, if variables were removed from the equations, the results for the remaining variables would be different altogether. Area Level: Linear regression was used to determine whether area level variables, mainly community size, could be used to predict the starting wage of activity directors in Wisconsin. Being from a large urban area, a small urban area, or a rural area was not found to be statistically different from being from a suburban area when it comes to predicting starting wages. Being from a suburban area was the category chosen as the comparison category because the majority of the responses were from suburban facilities. Facility Level: Multivariate linear regression was also used to examine whether facility level variables had an impact on activity directors starting wages. For this portion of the analysis, those facilities which could be categorized as more than one facility type were excluded for interpretation purposes. Those individuals from a for profit facility were found to earn about $2.34 less than those individuals from a non-profit facility. Having unionized members, compared to being non-union, was not significant in predicting starting wages. The starting wages for those who worked for a RCAC facility were not found to differ from those who worked for a SNF facility, however, those who worked for a CBRF or an adult daycare center earned less than those who worked for an SNF facility. Those who only worked for a CBRF earned $2.19 less, while those who only worked for an adult daycare center earned $8.31 less. Since there were only two individuals who only worked at an adult daycare facility, this second number may not really be representative of the difference between adult daycare facility wages and SNF wages. The number for those who worked at another type of facility was technically not statistically significant. Activity Department Level: Next, activity department level variables were examined. These variables include the number of residents the activity department serves, the number of individuals working in the activity department, and the number of staff hours available to the activity department. The number of residents and the number of activity department employees was not significant in predicting activity directors’ starting wages. For each additional staff hour, however, an activity director’s starting wage increases by $0.02. For example, an activity director who had 100 staff hours for the activity department would be expected to earn $1.00 more than an activity director who had 50 staff hours for the activity department. Activity Director Level: Finally, activity director level variables, such as the number of years spent as activity director, the number of years working in a nursing home, the number of certifications relevant to the activity director position, and the highest level of education attained, were used to predict activity directors’ starting wages. Education was the only variable found to be significant in predicting activity directors’ starting wages. Those individuals who have a graduate level education are expected to earn about $5.00 more per hour than those individuals with a high school level education (and no college experience). Only six individuals in the sample had a graduate level education, compared with the nineteen who had a high school diploma. Based on the responses generated from this survey, the area that the facility is located in does not seem to matter. A different sample may have different results. The type of facility does seem to matter. Broadly, those activity directors who work at non-profit facilities have a higher starting wage than those who work at “for-profit” facilities. Those individuals who work at a SNF have a higher starting wage than those who do not, and those who work at an adult daycare facility have a lower starting wage than those who do not. In addition to this, the more staff hours the activity department has, the higher the activity directors’ starting wage. While education did have some statistical significance, in the ANOVA tests it did not, and it would be difficult to conclude that education has a major impact on wages without further survey data. The number of certifications, or even having certifications at all, did not seem to matter when combined with education and years of experience, or even by themselves. Those activity directors who work at unionized facilities have a higher starting wage than those who do not, but when facility type and profit status are taken into account, union status is not significant in predicting starting wages for activity directors. Interestingly enough, the number of residents that the activity department is responsible for is highly significant when it alone is used to predict the starting wage. The same goes for the number of activity staff. When the number of residents and the number of activity staff are both included, however, the number of residents is not significant any more. After the number of staff hours for the activity department is added to the equation, neither the variable for the number of residents or the number of activity staff is significant. The number of staff hours accounts for the majority of the activity department level variation. Also interesting is the fact that when used alone, the number of years an individual was responsible for directing an activity department is significant in predicting starting wages, but when the number of years spent working at a nursing home, or the number of certifications is added, none of these variables are significant. In addition to this, the level of education attained is not significant by itself, but having a graduate level education becomes significant only after all the variables for number of years as an activity director and the number of years working at a nursing home are added. We can be 95% confident that the true average starting wage of activity directors in Wisconsin, +/- 10.27 percentage points, will be between 14.22 per hour and 15.68 per hour. Please note that the average poll or survey has a margin of error of 5 percentage points or less, which means that this wage range estimate, is not nearly as accurate as it could be with a larger sample size. Since the total number of facilities in Wisconsin is approximately one thousand, and the total sample size was of 91 respondents, the response rate for this survey was approximately 9 per cent. Most surveys try to attain a minimum of a 30% cooperation or completion rate. In the future, in order to get an accurate estimate, about 400 completed surveys would be needed. This would bring the margin of error, or sampling error, to about +/-5 per cent.
[1] 50% of the cases are above the median, while 50% are below the median. Also, throughout this text I refer to the mean as the “average.” [2] The totals reported are as such: a/b. The number in the numerator is the number of individuals who reported their starting wage. This number includes those individuals who only reported their current rate, and not a wage range. The number in the denominator is the number of individuals who reported their maximum wage. [3] The minimum starting wages are reported here in a range. The first number is the lowest starting range reported for this type of facility; the second number is the highest starting wage for this type of facility. These ranges include facilities that reported being more than one type of facility, and as such, the categories are not mutually exclusive. |
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