Nonprofit providers on the panel cited escalating rent, health care and technology costs, coupled with new overtime regulations and the need to cover minimum wage increases as just some of the factors weighing on their budgets as they work to deliver the services that government contracts often pay just 80 cents on the dollar to provide. To help address this, the Human Services Council, an umbrella group that represents about 170 social services organizations, has argued for including cost escalation clauses in contracts to guarantee that funders would adjust payments to reflect cost increases – usually related to inflation – that are out of either party’s control.
