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>First, if you choose to work for a non-profit, you should expect a huge pay cut. It may be the culture in some ecosystems but it's entirely false. A nonprofit

>First, if you choose to work for a non-profit, you should expect a huge pay cut. It may be the culture in some ecosystems but it's entirely false. A nonprofit can pay competitively with organizations of its size. I've worked at nonprofits and I've seen this line towed far too many times as an excuse to lower labor costs for people producing value for the organization. If your nonprofit is service oriented in anyway and requires people, appropriately investing in those people through their compensation and WLB is an appropriate investment. In theory, a nonprofit should be able to outperform and outpay a for-profit entity of the same size, largely because there shouldn't be an expectation of the organization to cut a big slice out to investors but instead to invest back into itself. This could mean increased hiring, grabbing top talent, investing back in a cause and so on.

jltsiren 4y ago
While some non-profits may be able to pay competitive wages, especially for people whose skills are not in high demand, that's definitely not true for most of them. In general, non-profits don't compete directly with for-profit businesses. They are far more likely to serve niches where for-profit businesses are not viable for one reason or another. Very often, the level of funding is what it is and the non-profit has very little control over it. If you choose to pay higher salaries, you get less work done. This is common in the academia, which is usually funded by taxes and tuition fees. Sometimes there is even an inverse correlation between funding and salaries. If a charity chooses to pay higher salaries, its "administrative costs" increase. Donations may then dry up, because people consider the charity inefficient. Many non-profits rely extensively on volunteer labor. Salaried professionals often contribute their time and expertise to a worthy cause for free. That puts paid employees in an awkward position. It's hard to argue that you deserve a higher salary when the market rate for your services is 0.

jltsiren 4y ago

While some non-profits may be able to pay competitive wages, especially for people whose skills are not in high demand, that's definitely not true for most of them. In general, non-profits don't compete directly with for-profit businesses. They are far more likely to serve niches where for-profit businesses are not viable for one reason or another. Very often, the level of funding is what it is and the non-profit has very little control over it. If you choose to pay higher salaries, you get less work done. This is common in the academia, which is usually funded by taxes and tuition fees. Sometimes there is even an inverse correlation between funding and salaries. If a charity chooses to pay higher salaries, its "administrative costs" increase. Donations may then dry up, because people consider the charity inefficient. Many non-profits rely extensively on volunteer labor. Salaried professionals often contribute their time and expertise to a worthy cause for free. That puts paid employees in an awkward position. It's hard to argue that you deserve a higher salary when the market rate for your services is 0.