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The IT staff also get paid... How very dare them. Go to work and earn a living... It’s disgusting I say. They should do it completely for the love of it. Same g

The IT staff also get paid... How very dare them. Go to work and earn a living... It’s disgusting I say. They should do it completely for the love of it. Same goes for those pesky YouTubers. Long story short. If you don’t offer a decent incentive package, you won’t incentivise people to come and take a CEO roll. If you look around you will find that CEO at other charity’s also get paid well.

thoraway329 7y ago
Yes I know and it does disgust me. I wasn't talking about IT staff and regular employees. The CEO founded the "company", does he really need to incentivise himself with a near million dollars a year? I thought NPOs were created by people who want to change the world, but with this salary it seriously skews my perception of his true intentions.
- the_pwner224 7y ago
  This 1m/yr is nothing compared to the impact KA has. It's no longer just a site with videos; it is a huge e-learning platform that is widely used and integrated in schools across the world. Being the CEO of KA must be a lot of work and I think most people would agree is worthy of that level of compensation. Or to put it another way: the government is also a nonprofit organization, but it needs good workers to fulfill its goals and those workers should be fairly compensated. We wouldn't get anywhere if the government paid everyone minimum wage.
  - ipsum2 7y ago
    No one gets in the government gets paid $800k, the highest paid salary is the president, at $400k.
    - HatchedLake721 7y ago
      You forgot to add few million from lobbyists
    - mschuster91 7y ago
      Add to that the extra income from illegal such as bribes or the income Trump's orgs like his hotels do, to the legal avenues after the term such as book deals, speaker fees, corporate board memberships, lobbyism deals... the president nominally gets 400k but in reality way, way more than that.
      - Aachen 7y ago
        But not out of the pockets of tax payers (or in Khan's case, donations). If people pay for Trump hotels, Trump speaking at their party, Trump endorsing their book, that's not the elected government's choice. Similarly, non-profit CEOs are free to have a hotel chain on the side, but I'm not sure it should come from donations that people gave to the platform. That said, compared to other ceo salaries I've seen in the USA... This isn't that ridiculous indeed, it gets much worse (and I'm talking only about non-profits).
    - sumedh 7y ago
      Singapores ministers are paid good amount, lot of the high level positions make more than million dollars. If you want skilled people you need to pay a good amount.
    - mythz 7y ago
      Who gets to fly around on a taxpayer funded private airplane and spends over 249 days on a golf course costing >130M, 1/2 of which is spent at his Mar-a-Lago resort, but that's totally fine because his salary is less than a Non Profits CEO. Trump doesn't care about salary because that's an irrelevant portion of the income generated from his presidency.
    - bretpiatt 7y ago
      This is just wrong, here's a quick search and article from Orange County Register listing top paid government workers in California (Since Khan is in CA). He wouldn't even make the list. https://www.ocregister.com/2017/08/22/top-california-public-salaries-go-to-coaches-doctors/ https://www.ocregister.com/2017/08/22/top-california-public-...
- Crosseye_Jack 7y ago
  But why not talk about the IT staff? You want their site to run to well right? You want some decent site reliability engineers right? Well you might find some that will do the job for less then they can earn for the same role in the for-profit world, you are still going to have to pay a decent wage for their skill and let’s be honest here so they can continue to live in a comfort they have become accustomed too. The CEO doesn’t earn no where near the CEO’s for other charities in the US go have a look over here https://www.charitywatch.org/top-charity-salaries https://www.charitywatch.org/top-charity-salaries Edit: You can “change the world” (even if it’s a very small change, in a small part of the world) and still earn a fair living for your actions. You are completely free to feel that 800k isn’t fair payment. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. I’m not embedded into khan to know if he is really worth that paycheque. But I know the charity hasn’t been run into the ground.
  - tasogare 7y ago
    Then let's talk about the IT staff. What is their salary? How many of them the "non-profits" could hire if their CEO had a more decent salary? The organizations we are speaking about are very loud to beg for money yet they spend a large part of it on overpaying a few execs. This is very different from companies that earn their money without asking the public for money.
    - Crosseye_Jack 7y ago
      Quick random google search. Software engineer Google - Average total compensation: $144,652 (ok written in 2014, like I said it was a quick google search - https://www.infoworld.com/article/3304439/man-or-myth-the-3-million-google-engineer.html https://www.infoworld.com/article/3304439/man-or-myth-the-3-... ) Software engineer Khan - Average total compensation: $119,140/yr - https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salary/Khan-Academy-Salaries-E452278.htm https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salary/Khan-Academy-Salaries-E45... So not that much different to those in similar fields in the similar area. So if the CEO took a 50% pay cut they could hire and extra 3-4 engineers a year. But that’s just straight salary costs and the cost of staff isn’t just the salary cost. But that argument can be said of any charity, non-profit, business, school, hospital. “If only the top surgeon took a 50% pay cut, think of all the extra nurses we could hire...”
- philipps 7y ago
  Since it’s a non-profit there are no shares or shareholders and he has no equity, ie the salary is the only way he financially benefits from the success of the organization. 800k is a lot of money but it doesn’t seem outlandish to me, considering the impact and popularity. Why should you need to choose between doing good and doing well?
  - macspoofing 7y ago
    That's all well and good until you start asking for extra donations during a pandemic that will be followed by a major recession. If you are going to do that, you should probably make a gesture as well. CEOs of various companies have been cutting their pay as a gesture for the duration of the pandemic.
    - kyawzazaw 7y ago
      CEOs at other companies have other types of compensation through stocks and bonus pays, years before. Sal Khan's societal impact is huge.
woofie11 7y ago
I worked for a not-for-profit where, 3 years in, we learned the CEO was making as much as everyone else combined for the first year. Guy was also doing minimal work. I got fed up with these things. If Khan either open-licenses the platform, or takes a pay cut to $200,000, I'll donate. If he does neither of those, I'm treating this as a 501(c)3-by-technicality only. It's a good for-profit, mind you, but still a for-profit by any definition I (rather than the IRS) would use.
- sumedh 7y ago
  > takes a pay cut to $200,000, I'll donate. Why $200,000, why not $100,000?
  - jessaustin 7y ago
    Not OP, but here's a possibility: In the last month I've spoken with numerous people who earn $200k/yr. I'm not sure I've spoken with someone who earns Khan's salary in the last year. (There is one guy who probably earns that in good years, but I'm not sure the last year has been a "good" one.) That is, regardless of whatever rarefied Silicon Valley filter bubble we're pretending exists here on HN, Khan is not raising money from Silicon Valley. He is raising it from the world, and a very low percentage of humans earn $800k/yr. Granted, however, this is not just a problem with Khan Academy. Many "non-profits" pay their executives unreasonable salaries.
  - woofie11 7y ago
    $200k is about the threshold needed to qualify for a mortgage in the area he's living for a comfortable, but not luxurious single-family home. That's also a good baseline for a standard-of-living where all necessities are met, without worrying about them, and where there isn't financial stress. However, it's not enough to get rich. It's also a point where I don't feel like I'm making a significantly greater sacrifice than Khan would if he paid out of his own pocket (in other words, a signal that I care more about the organization than he does). $100k would be okay in the midwest or rural America.
- vowelless 7y ago

thoraway329 7y ago

Yes I know and it does disgust me. I wasn't talking about IT staff and regular employees. The CEO founded the "company", does he really need to incentivise himself with a near million dollars a year? I thought NPOs were created by people who want to change the world, but with this salary it seriously skews my perception of his true intentions.

the_pwner224 7y ago
This 1m/yr is nothing compared to the impact KA has. It's no longer just a site with videos; it is a huge e-learning platform that is widely used and integrated in schools across the world. Being the CEO of KA must be a lot of work and I think most people would agree is worthy of that level of compensation. Or to put it another way: the government is also a nonprofit organization, but it needs good workers to fulfill its goals and those workers should be fairly compensated. We wouldn't get anywhere if the government paid everyone minimum wage.
- ipsum2 7y ago
  No one gets in the government gets paid $800k, the highest paid salary is the president, at $400k.
  - HatchedLake721 7y ago
    You forgot to add few million from lobbyists
  - mschuster91 7y ago
    Add to that the extra income from illegal such as bribes or the income Trump's orgs like his hotels do, to the legal avenues after the term such as book deals, speaker fees, corporate board memberships, lobbyism deals... the president nominally gets 400k but in reality way, way more than that.
    - Aachen 7y ago
      But not out of the pockets of tax payers (or in Khan's case, donations). If people pay for Trump hotels, Trump speaking at their party, Trump endorsing their book, that's not the elected government's choice. Similarly, non-profit CEOs are free to have a hotel chain on the side, but I'm not sure it should come from donations that people gave to the platform. That said, compared to other ceo salaries I've seen in the USA... This isn't that ridiculous indeed, it gets much worse (and I'm talking only about non-profits).
  - sumedh 7y ago
    Singapores ministers are paid good amount, lot of the high level positions make more than million dollars. If you want skilled people you need to pay a good amount.
  - mythz 7y ago
    Who gets to fly around on a taxpayer funded private airplane and spends over 249 days on a golf course costing >130M, 1/2 of which is spent at his Mar-a-Lago resort, but that's totally fine because his salary is less than a Non Profits CEO. Trump doesn't care about salary because that's an irrelevant portion of the income generated from his presidency.
  - bretpiatt 7y ago
    This is just wrong, here's a quick search and article from Orange County Register listing top paid government workers in California (Since Khan is in CA). He wouldn't even make the list. https://www.ocregister.com/2017/08/22/top-california-public-salaries-go-to-coaches-doctors/ https://www.ocregister.com/2017/08/22/top-california-public-...
Crosseye_Jack 7y ago
But why not talk about the IT staff? You want their site to run to well right? You want some decent site reliability engineers right? Well you might find some that will do the job for less then they can earn for the same role in the for-profit world, you are still going to have to pay a decent wage for their skill and let’s be honest here so they can continue to live in a comfort they have become accustomed too. The CEO doesn’t earn no where near the CEO’s for other charities in the US go have a look over here https://www.charitywatch.org/top-charity-salaries https://www.charitywatch.org/top-charity-salaries Edit: You can “change the world” (even if it’s a very small change, in a small part of the world) and still earn a fair living for your actions. You are completely free to feel that 800k isn’t fair payment. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. I’m not embedded into khan to know if he is really worth that paycheque. But I know the charity hasn’t been run into the ground.
- tasogare 7y ago
  Then let's talk about the IT staff. What is their salary? How many of them the "non-profits" could hire if their CEO had a more decent salary? The organizations we are speaking about are very loud to beg for money yet they spend a large part of it on overpaying a few execs. This is very different from companies that earn their money without asking the public for money.
  - Crosseye_Jack 7y ago
    Quick random google search. Software engineer Google - Average total compensation: $144,652 (ok written in 2014, like I said it was a quick google search - https://www.infoworld.com/article/3304439/man-or-myth-the-3-million-google-engineer.html https://www.infoworld.com/article/3304439/man-or-myth-the-3-... ) Software engineer Khan - Average total compensation: $119,140/yr - https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salary/Khan-Academy-Salaries-E452278.htm https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salary/Khan-Academy-Salaries-E45... So not that much different to those in similar fields in the similar area. So if the CEO took a 50% pay cut they could hire and extra 3-4 engineers a year. But that’s just straight salary costs and the cost of staff isn’t just the salary cost. But that argument can be said of any charity, non-profit, business, school, hospital. “If only the top surgeon took a 50% pay cut, think of all the extra nurses we could hire...”
philipps 7y ago
Since it’s a non-profit there are no shares or shareholders and he has no equity, ie the salary is the only way he financially benefits from the success of the organization. 800k is a lot of money but it doesn’t seem outlandish to me, considering the impact and popularity. Why should you need to choose between doing good and doing well?
- macspoofing 7y ago
  That's all well and good until you start asking for extra donations during a pandemic that will be followed by a major recession. If you are going to do that, you should probably make a gesture as well. CEOs of various companies have been cutting their pay as a gesture for the duration of the pandemic.
  - kyawzazaw 7y ago
    CEOs at other companies have other types of compensation through stocks and bonus pays, years before. Sal Khan's societal impact is huge.

woofie11 7y ago

I worked for a not-for-profit where, 3 years in, we learned the CEO was making as much as everyone else combined for the first year. Guy was also doing minimal work. I got fed up with these things. If Khan either open-licenses the platform, or takes a pay cut to $200,000, I'll donate. If he does neither of those, I'm treating this as a 501(c)3-by-technicality only. It's a good for-profit, mind you, but still a for-profit by any definition I (rather than the IRS) would use.

sumedh 7y ago
> takes a pay cut to $200,000, I'll donate. Why $200,000, why not $100,000?
- jessaustin 7y ago
  Not OP, but here's a possibility: In the last month I've spoken with numerous people who earn $200k/yr. I'm not sure I've spoken with someone who earns Khan's salary in the last year. (There is one guy who probably earns that in good years, but I'm not sure the last year has been a "good" one.) That is, regardless of whatever rarefied Silicon Valley filter bubble we're pretending exists here on HN, Khan is not raising money from Silicon Valley. He is raising it from the world, and a very low percentage of humans earn $800k/yr. Granted, however, this is not just a problem with Khan Academy. Many "non-profits" pay their executives unreasonable salaries.
- woofie11 7y ago
  $200k is about the threshold needed to qualify for a mortgage in the area he's living for a comfortable, but not luxurious single-family home. That's also a good baseline for a standard-of-living where all necessities are met, without worrying about them, and where there isn't financial stress. However, it's not enough to get rich. It's also a point where I don't feel like I'm making a significantly greater sacrifice than Khan would if he paid out of his own pocket (in other words, a signal that I care more about the organization than he does). $100k would be okay in the midwest or rural America.
vowelless 7y ago