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?

YANBU I surprised at some of the answers too! A CEO in a private company would earn well over £150K!

I've worked in the charity sector for 12 years, on and off (kids). People who think like your mates are short sighted.

If charities didn't pay decent salaries, you couldn't just hand that money over to the cause instead. Most charities provide help, not cash. That help costs money. Time, resources, logistics, governance, legal frameworks, funding, measuring impact. That is skilled work, and it's what makes charities accountable. If we just sent a wad of cash to other countries or refugees or kids, how would that pan out?

Some large charities have dead wood, like any large public sector org. It happens over time. Processes become inflated, they chase money to maintain their own existence and forget the mission. I won't deny that. That happens in hospitals and schools too, it's a feature of loviathan institutions. The good ones change, reshape, cut the dead wood, reorganise. Guess what? That costs money too! And requires leadership.

Most people have 0 clue how the sector works but like to pontificate on how theyd do things better. T'was ever thus.

I am absolutely floored by the constant stream of people implying that volunteers are "unskilled". What the hell?

Where was that said?

OP you were never going to get a positive response on here. To many people a salary of 150k is just beyond comprehension.

Most people on MN hate rich people, they believe everyone should be equally poor.

Not sure what the aim of this thread was, OP.
All of your comments just seem to be a giant self glorification of how fabulous you are, working all the hours under the sun, turning down £150k and how awesome you are at your job etc..

It’s lunacy to compare the chief executive of M&S with that of a charity.

A pp asked what kind of job could get 450k in the private sector, I gave an example.

Of course you can't really compare the two.

If all you can do to attract competent people to a position is offer a six-figure salary then you've done f*cked up.

When I apply with companies I look at the whole package. How is the work atmosphere? How many vacation days do they offer? Do they compensate for travel arrangements/commuting? How long do people generally stay with the company? Is there room to pursue training courses and certificates. That sort of stuff.

But if I find out that a company or an organisation attracts "talent" by basically buying them, then I run for the hills. Then I know I would end up being surrounded by massive egos and horribly unpleasant people who couldn't give two shits about the end result. But they want a pat on the back for being paid much. Because apparently they work "harder then anyone".

The Third Sector information page lists the top 100 salaries for charities 2019.

Top of the list is £3.17m paid to the CEO of the Wellcome Trust. 286 of their staff are paid more than £60k. Some other notable ones include The Consumers' Association at £825,000, The City and Guilds of London Institute at £690,000 and The Royal Opera House at £794,591. Macmillan Cancer pays £180,000 and has 102 staff over £60,000. Marie Curie pays £160,000 with 54 staff paid over £60,000. Nuffield Health pays £520,000 with 342 staff on over £60,000.

Bottom of the Top 100 list are all over £140,000.

Other well known names include: Marie Stopes International £300,000, The Girls' Day School Trust £266,000 (plus 98 staff on over £60,000), Church Commissioners for England £264,000, Nursing and Midwifery Council £237,000, Save the Children International £230,000, Eton College £205,000, RSPCA £200,000, RNIBP £190,000, British Heart Foundation £179,000, Motability £177,500, British Red Cross £173,000, Age UK £170,000. VSO £160,000 and so on.

The bottom 13 Charities on the list pay between £140,000-£150,000. These are, in descending order: 88: Action for Children, 89: Citizens Advice, 90: Oxfam, 91: St Mungo Housing, 92: RSPB, 93: Save the Children (plus their international salary noted above), 94: The British Academy, 95: RVS, 96: The National Autistic Society, 97: Methodist Independent Schools Trust, 98: Sue Ryder, 99: PDSA, 100: Methodist Homes.

So, the OP works for one of these. Not bad salaries really and they definitely have the scope to move to well paid Government jobs, higher up the Charity sector and Quangos for way more money if they are at the bottom end.

It is not reported how many are £100,000 plus but I suspect a hell of a lot.

Has YOUR charity introduced the living wage or are your minions still living below the poverty line? £150 k is an obscene salary whatever way you dress it up. The gap between rich and poor just gets bigger and bigger. But it's fine, coz you 'work hard'

5 women CEOs in th bottom 13: Julie Bentley, Gillian Guy, Beccy Speight, Catherine Johnstone and Heidi Travis. It beggars belief that any one of them is moaning about salary and hard work.

I think there should be a ratio which limits top pay relative to other workers' pay. This argument about how much management are worth makes me laugh. Some managers are good, some are crap. Principal of a college many yeas ago was on £172000 p.a.
He was well in with governors but all staff knew he was a lazy sod.

CaptSkippy I think your post is quite disingenuous to be honest. Of course people look at the whole package not the salary. And people who work for charities have to do this more than most because the charity will never be offering the most money, even if they are paying £150k.

Just because you are paid a good salary doesn’t mean you’re only chasing money and would be prepared to work for 50% less for the the right role. We all know most people would simply never consider this.

(for the sake of transparency it’s worth pointing out that a CEO of a charity will never be a contender for CEO of a PLC such as M&S - they simply will rarely offer the right skill or experience, so it’s not a hugely fair comparison)

Charities compete with other sectors for staff. For skilled professionals they need to pay similar salaries. There will be some (not many) prepared to work for less because it is a charity.

@TakemedowntoPotatoCity why should OP have to name the charity and reveal her identity if she doesn't want to??

Just to add to BubblesBuddy post, as of September 2018 there were 168,186 charities registered in England and Wales, so when you are considering what the top 100 get paid, remember that 168,086 CEOs will be on a hell of a lot less!

@Kolo I’ve given scant details as I don’t want to out myself.

Don’t blame you, totally understandable. I don’t want you to out yourself. I just think some people have no idea what scale we’re talking about, how the turnover of some charities is multiple millions and is a huge organisation that can’t be run on volunteers. £150k to a charity with a £500m turnover is 0.03%.

Headteachers can earn £150k. I know a couple of Heads of MATs on that and more. Do people also begrudge paying heads and teachers that much money?

Also in the private sector there are perks. DH is well paid. In addition to his salary he gets a bonus, is in a final salary pension scheme, gets to buy shares in the company at a preferential rate, we are all as a family covered by BUPA, they have an office national trust corporate membership we can use whenever we want, there's a free on site gym, subsidised restaurant, loads of other little things like 25% off at a pizza place in town.

Employees of charities get none of that. Statutory minimum when it comes to holiday and sick. In our charity, staff and volunteers dont even get staff discount in the shop which for retail is almost unheard of.

Oh, we get £10 per head towards a staff Christmas meal. And when there was a thread about it last year some posters were saying how grabby it was of volunteers to be spending money on a jolly.

DonkeyHohtay Charities are all different. Plenty offer the benefits you describe. The ones I’ve worked with offer holiday and sick pay to rival the public sector. They’re not homogenous, just as there are many private sector Companies who are poor employers and don’t offer the benefits your husband gets

Also- academies have charitable status. There are honestly so many companies gnat enjoy charitable status. Not just your donate in an envelope charities

Donkey
Ours is the same.
We do not get any perks apart from 6 months paid sick leave. Its SSP after that, SMP, basic holidays and £10 each for Christmas meal.
They do ask that all the volunteers are invited to a thank you party every year which is lovely.

We were asked recently if we would like more perks such as store vouchers for outstanding work/years in service that sort of thing. The vast majority of staff thought it wrong to receive anything that cost money like vouchers and so far we have agreed on 1 extra paid day off for your birthday. Which i know is still a cost but it feels better iyswim.

That's one reason I've stopped donating to big charities. If I'm on a normal wage, donating money to help people in need I don't want it going to pay the wages of someone on a massive wage.

How do you expect big national charities to function properly without skilled staff azu?

Ooh I just remembered another benefit. Free Glastonbury tickets if you're prepared to work 4 x 6 hour unpaid shifts, make your own way there and sort your own accommodation.

We do get "first pick" on donated items as a shop volunteer. But everything is priced at market rate and recorded.

Friend works in Waitrose and I think she gets 15% off everything. And a friend's son gets 50% off in Gregg's!

Running a big charity is like running any large company. I don't expect them to pay FTSE 100 salaries, but large private company salaries, certainly.