We respect employees’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining and it is our responsibility to ensure employees have all the facts about unionization, as we do with any other areas of their employment. We are committed to providing transparent and comprehensive information to help them make informed decisions.
Maximus has a clear position. We believe our employees are best served by working directly with the company and its leadership – not a third party like a union – to address matters of concern.
The Contact Center Operations contract extends its partnership with Maximus to support more than 75 million Americans with access to health insurance through Medicare and the Federal Marketplace.
Recruiting, hiring, and retaining a workforce that reflects the communities and programs we serve is a core value. Maximus maintains and continually refines its approaches to attract talent at all organizational levels, including recruitment programs with local colleges and universities and partnerships with higher education institutions on skills development.
Maximus is committed to the health and financial wellness of our employees. Hourly workers receive no premium medical insurance and subsidized dependent coverage. We also offer free benefits covering physical, financial, and emotional wellbeing. Additional benefits include a company-matched 401(k), paid time off, sick leave, and an employee assistance program. Each year, Maximus responds to employee and competitive interests, which included offering free telehealth services, adding domestic partner coverage and further reducing deductibles in 2024.
Maximus respects every employee’s right to organize. We never impede their ability to exercise that right. To date, our employees have overwhelmingly chosen not to unionize. We respect our employees’ right to make this choice freely, without influence from the company. Maximus remains committed to providing all employees a voice through open communication, regular feedback mechanisms, and a culture of mutual respect.
The safety and wellbeing of our employees is paramount. We maintain strict zero-tolerance policies prohibiting any form of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation, with regular training for all employees. Our dedicated Health & Safety team ensures all workplaces meet or exceed OSHA standards. During the pandemic, we implemented extensive protocols to protect on-site staff, provided an education campaign with a licensed physician, and enabled over 60% of our workforce to work remotely.
Our culture is built on six core values: Accountability, Collaboration, Compassion, Customer Focus, Innovation, and Respect. These are reinforced constantly through communications, events, recognition programs, and leadership modeling the values every day. In our 2023 employee survey, 84% said they intend to stay at Maximus for at least the next year. We strive to ensure every employee feels valued and engaged.
As required by the McNamara Service Contract Act, which determines wages for covered workers, all Maximus workers are paid a stable and predictable living wage before overtime, tips, and commissions. Workers’ pay is fair, transparent, and equitable. Wages increase with increased skills and experience. We enthusiastically support Federal Contractor Minimum Wage orders and have consistently advocated for reforms to the SCA that would allow us to further enhance employee wages and benefits.
Maximus invests heavily in our employees’ career development, offering robust job skills training, leadership development programs, online learning platforms, tuition assistance, and mentoring opportunities. In 2023, employees completed over 1 million hours of training. The majority of management roles are filled through internal promotion. In our annual employee survey, 84% of staff reported being aware of learning opportunities and 72% said the programs equipped them well for their roles.
In short, Maximus exceeds the standards in areas like hiring, employee benefits, worker empowerment, job security, workplace culture, fair pay, and opportunities for career growth. We offer strong benefits and maintain a workplace where respect and empowerment are key. Our commitment to ensuring a safe, fair, and supportive work environment is clear from our policies and the positive feedback we receive from our staff.
As we navigate through ongoing discussions about unionization, it's crucial that you have access to accurate and transparent information. Recently, several claims have been made about our workplace practices and policies. We believe it's important to address these claims directly, so you can have a clear picture of the situation.
There’s just no truth to the claim that most Maximus employees are unhappy or poorly treated. Here’s a factual breakdown of some of the other key issues that the union has raised:
FACT: The last “strike” at Maximus lasted less than 3 hours and the union catered it with a BBQ lunch and paid many attendees to show up. It's also important to clarify that Maximus has never experienced a service interruption – not from the pandemic, weather events, or labor demonstrations. The demonstrations that have occurred have seen only a small number of Maximus employees and have not impacted our service quality or availability, as confirmed by the performance metrics required by CMS. Many of the non-employee participants have, in fact, been CWA members from other companies that are paid and brought in to join the event.
For example, over the last four demonstrations at one location, only four Maximus employees have attended all of the events and only 0.62% of all CCO staff have participated. This shows an almost universal disinterest by our staff to form or join a union.
FACT: Filing legal claims against a company is a very common union tactic during a corporate campaign. It makes a company look like it’s breaking the law! But let’s dig into the facts.
Starting around 2019, the CWA began filing legal charges, called Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges, against Maximus. But they lost. So, they tried again. And lost. Again and again, they tried to win a charge against Maximus, again and again they lost. They lost 10 times in a row. Finally, the CWA decided on a “hit and run” tactic: They would file a ULP charge but keep the facts really fuzzy and apparently never pursue the claim. That’s what’s been happening since about 2022: A ULP charge is filed and just its there with zero progress. Why do we think that? The average amount of time to investigate a ULP is 7 to 14 weeks. Maximus has ULP’s going back over two years. Yes, ULP’s have been filed against Maximus but it is equally true that Maximus has never been found liable on any ULP charge. Not a single one.
FACT: Our internal surveys, conducted independently by PricewaterhouseCoopers, show a different picture: 76% of our employees, including those at call centers, would recommend Maximus as a great place to work, and 86% plan to stay with the company for another 12 months. The survey responses and feedback from employees do not support the narrative that Maximus has poor working conditions.
Additionally, every year, we publish an Employee Engagement and Company Culture report on our website. These reports outline our Global Employee Engagement Survey results, our culture of feedback, our commitment to learning and development, DEI, and other initiatives.
FACT: CWA misuses and distorts information from the MIT Living Wage Calculator to fit a narrative for employees in Mississippi.
The MIT calculator, used at the time of the report, provided living wage estimates for twelve different household types, showing significant variations depending on the household details. The report in question has chosen to use the estimate for a one-earner, one-child household type, which is $31.48 in Mississippi. This figure, however, does not represent the most common household type according to the U.S. Census Bureau data for the area, which suggests that the two-earner, one-child household type, with a living wage estimate of $17.62, is more appropriate.
Additionally, the MIT tool indicates that the living wage for a call center worker in Forrest County, MS should be $33,363 annually. In comparison, the minimum annual, non-bonused wages for a full-time Maximus employee in the same location is slightly higher at $33,696. A market wage survey also shows that the median advertised wage for a call center representative in Forrest County is $14.95, which is about $2.25 lower than the minimum wage offered by Maximus. This data underscores that Maximus' wage offerings are competitive within the local market context.
Maximus offers a higher starting wage for entry-level or early-career professional services roles in the markets in which we operate. We also exceed our obligations to employees under the Service Contract Act through a mix of benefits offerings and employee options to obtain health and welfare benefits.
A recent view of CWA’s District 3 labor agreement with AT&T, which was effective on February 11, 2023, shows that the starting wage the CWA negotiated with the company for a CSR is $420 a week, which is $10.50 an hour. This is well below our starting wage of $17.20. We also looked at several employment sites, such as Glassdoor, and found that the average pay range is between $13.94 and $20.19 an hour.
FACT: Maximus offers flexible break and leave options to accommodate the needs of its employees. In addition to their 15-minute breaks and meal period, employees and their managers partner together for any potential scheduling accommodations that are needed based on the employee’s circumstances. All employees have the flexibility to request a bathroom break at any time during their shift.
We hope this information helps clarify some of the misconceptions that have been circulating. We are committed to maintaining an open and honest dialogue. If you have any questions or need further information, please do not hesitate to reach out. We value your hard work and dedication and are here to support you every step of the way.
