To feel outraged at my friends re charity salaries?

[Pissedoffandbored]

Have a group chat going with a load of my girlfriends. There have been some additions to the group chat this week, some I know well and others are just acquaintances. One girl I don’t know sent a link to published salaries for charities. Girl didn’t know I work for a National Charity in a senior position and slated the amount I earn saying people don’t deserve to earn more than PM. At this point I interjected making her aware of my position and she proceeded to have a go at me. I defended my position but most of my friends agreed I earned too much since I worked for a charity.

So AIBU to be pissed off? Also, is this the general consensus or are my mates just dick heads?

I don’t know - how much do you earn? How skilled is your job? What percentage of every pound your charity brings in actually goes directly to the charity advertised?

I worked for a charity pre kids. Our salaries were MASSIVELY lower than they would be for an equivalent job in the profit sector. I was fine with that because I worked for the charity because of a passion for the cause not for the monetary benefits. I would’ve went back to it btw but I now have health problems so it wasn’t that I quit because of the pay!

i also work for a charity and yes i would say it is the general consensus but it doesn't make any sense at all! charities need good people just as much (if not more than) for profit business!

no your not most charities nowadays have paid staff its only very small ones that dont, charities over a certain size run better and are more efficient with some paid staff , i run the ebay page for a medium sized cat charity i get paid a certain amount of hours each week to do this , i feel guilty that i get paid but i do lots more hours than i actually get paid for and raise a lot of money that the charity can use for its real purpose of helping abandoned , unwanted, pregnat cats and their kittens find forever homes

YANBU. I worked in a senior position in a charity for 6yrs and it pisses me off that the wages are scrutinised in that sector. As it happens my wages never went up in 6yrs, I had no pension and also no sick pay or benefits. I left in the end to work in the public sector. I went to uni for 5yrs so why shouldn't I get paid a good wage just because I want to help people.

Rant over! Your friends are being arseholes.

It's a fine line to walk. Charities have to pay enough to attract experienced, effective executives but they're also being paid from donor funds that could be supporting the mission directly.

In the US executive salaries at tax exempt non-profits have to disclosed annually and can be looked up on-line, but there are no statutory limits on pay. Full transparency seems to keep things in balance.

A bit confused when you say people don't deserve to earn more than PM. Is PM Prime Minister?

If you're comfortable that what you earn is appropriate given your value to the organization I wouldn't worry about it.

I think it depends how much your charity gives to the cause. eg 5-10% of money raised, ok. Above that, I get uncomfortable.

But then, I run a brain cancer charity where we give 100% of what we raise to our cause, simply because of the fact that we are young, and we dont have any salaries, overheads, advertising etc. (And we are pretty successful at what we do)

What do you get paid OP? Not possible really to answer the question without knowing that.

Were your earnings publishing in the article OP? If not, how would the woman know your salary?

By PM do you mean the Prime Minister?
They earn around 150k.
Yes, it is obscene that someone working in the charity sector should earn that much.
It’s also disgusting that part time chief execs and trustees should draw massive salaries alongside other salaries such as an MPs salary. (Derek Conway and the Cats protection league about 10 years ago springs to mind for that one)
But if your friends were saying that because you are working in the charity sector you should earn less than a civil servant or educational professional with a similar role and should take minimum wage or similar then they are being unreasonable.

Do you earn more than the PM?

absolutely obscene and why I wouldnt ever donate to the big charities. Theyre basically businesses. No point me donating a fiver to a big charity when theyre paying people 150k.

How much of peoples donations go where they think its going to go

especially if you are on 150k and then also relying on volunteers to do the shitwork

Depends what you earn.

YANBU. I work in the private sector but I expect charities who want great people to pay competitive wages.

Someone who has worked their way up to executive level usually has the financial commitments that go along with it and just because the organisation is non profit doesn’t mean people should expect to work for a fraction of the price. I could see myself taking a 10 or 20% pay cut if I really loved the role and the mission but any more would be infeasible unless we wanted to forget about retirement, or move house, or pull DD out of her school.

I don’t find the comparison to the PM relevant - the type of person who becomes PM usually could, and indeed often goes onto earn, many times that salary in the “real world”. People don’t become PM for a salary someone in the city with a similar background could achieve in under a decade from leaving Uni.

It's not as though she has a totally baseless argument OP. My DP left a moderately high profile charity in the last few years to return to private sector working and he would be the first to have said he was grossly overpaid and the charity itself was woefully incapable of distributing, managing, or even recording their financial movements accurately, even if those movements are above board, so to speak. He often felt guilty about his salary when compared to the % that actually goes to a direct cause at the end of it all, and was deeply embarrassed about the saviour complex among the (largely) inexperienced management teams who had no relevent previous charity sector work or degree, hadn't spent any time in said country or community or had experience managing projects of the nature the charity undertook. It affecyed his mood and self esteem quite a bit actually. These people earn well above the odds nonetheless. Especially if we are talking about London.

It depends what you do and if it is skilled and that is put to use. There are certainly a great deal of charity sector jobs that pay very high salaries but essentially are admin roles that don't require previous experience or qualification.

She is BU to have 'had a go' of course, but it depends how she said it really. If she raised the issue but wasn't abusive, I wouldn't call that 'having a go'. I would feel put out but ultimately you are not to blame for the salary in the sector you work are you. Most people would not turn it down either. I would accept the general point is a very valid one and leave it at that tbh, scrutinizing one another's salaries and expenditures isn't necessary or good manners.

He has since left for private sector work due in part to this and the feeling that he was contributing very little aside and had no place managing what he was managing (at a fairly high level). I'm sure he is not alone.

Some charities are huge, and have budgets greater than most companies. Many operate worldwide, and they need to run extremely efficiently. They are subject to the same regulations (and more) as private companies. Of course they need well qualified and experienced people every bit as much as big companies do. But who's going to apply for those high ranking and important posts if they're not going to be paid what they're worth?

I don't work in the sector, but it drives me nuts that people are so illogical and naive when it comes to salaries in the charitable sector.

Just to add I earn nowhere near £150k but my boss does and I think she’d be a bloody asset - and great value - to any organisation.

If you want competent, skilled people running charities, then you need to pay a vaguely competitive salary. I’m public sector. I earn a lot less than I would private (maybe 10% less and no bonus or other benefits) but I do it because I want to work where I work. If the salary was worse than this, I couldn’t keep doing it. I’ve got bills to pay and a family to support. Goodwill only gets you so far.

OP; if you earn more than the PM, I’m guessing you’re in a very senior post, like a CEO type role?

I had to turn down a charity role because it paid less than 50% of what I could earn in the private sector - and I'm well paid but not as well as the PM! It's probably a question of talent, if they can get enough committed and skilled people who take those salaries (which I suspect they can, if I were not a main earner with a large family I would still have said yes), then it is crazy to pay £150k or more for anything bar an absolutely spectacular CEO.

Without making it personal, I agree that charity staff should not be paid so much, especially given the awful scandals there have been recently. I stopped giving to a well known charity for that reason. Better to give to small ones.

The top level staff of charities generally earn less than their equivalent roles in the public or private sector, for the same work. If an organisation wants the skills, then they need to be prepared to pay for them.

My personal view is charities need skilled and experienced staff and need to pay appropriate salaries. I think the thing that upsets people is the idea that they give donations or fundraise and a percentage of that goes to a large salary rather than, say, curing cancer. But you can't cure cancer unless you have funds and budgets managed competently, recruit talented people, supervise research etc. I don't have a problem with that. I happen to think the prime minister role and MPs and local councillors should be better remunerated too. The charities I support publish details of how much of their income from all sources goes on admin and salaries. It's a tiny proportion.

I will never support Oxfam (even less so after the rape claims) because I used to work in Oxford and see so many of their overpaid lazy staff coming into my establishment during work hours and laughing about it!! Utter bastards. Think £40k 15 years ago for a glorified admin job. One even looked embarrassed telling me her salary (had to as part of an application) so if you work for Oxfam OP or generally get paid more than a normal company YABU

But you don’t understand OP! There is no need to pay charity staff even for highly skilled positions! There are always a few ‘good chaps’ who’ve made a mint in the city and are happy to retire early and faff around doing the hard stuff for a minimal (obvs not no) salary, while the rest of the work is done by women who should happily fit in volunteering between schools runs and being supported by husbands (who work in the city... and clearly would never need to worry about humdrum stuff like money). You’re doing it all wrong!

for the avoidance of doubt, that was sarcasm and yes I work for a charity