Hundreds of community workers have marched through Sydney, calling for wage increases to help ease demanding job loads created by the financial crisis.

Australian Service Union New South Wales secretary Sally McManus says the workers in the social and community services sector felt the New South Wales government was taking them for granted.

Although they are from the non-government sector, their organisations are government funded, with staff employed by community based management committees or boards.

The workers operate in services such as family support, day care, disability assistance, youth and women's refuges and in neighbourhood and community centres.

Ms McManus says New South Wales social and community workers are paid up to 20-thousand dollars less a year than government workers and up to 35 per cent less than colleagues in Queensland.