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?

What exactly is this super power you have? Talent don't make me heave. You completely disgust me and many others. Greed is a sin.

Christ almighty, its not greedy to expect compensation in line with your market peers and that reflects the role you do.

And if there is no talent, valued skill set or other element of hard work involved I imagine you would be CEO in a snap if it were not for the morals of it all, right?

Rest assured that not everyone working for charities are getting paid a lot. Even thought “a lot” is a very relative term, some of us are working our arses off and still earn less than our young grown up kids.

No one is saying that's not the case though, so really no need for the pious sentiment, it doesn't mean however third sector wages shouldn't be scrutinised thoroughly, especially considering their funding model, its kind of weird very few have jumped ship into the private sector once they are in though, and continue to enjoy above inflation increase of wages during the the past 10 years.

I don't think she's worth every penny at all.

Ha ha ha

OMG how the hell would you know? You dont even know the charity she works for. You know nothing about the OP other than what her company pays her yet you feel qualified to judge?

Is this the stupidest post on the thread?

So should the head of a 2,100 pupil academy in a deprived area get paid less than a local authority school head of 1, 800 in a more affluent area?
How would the academy attract a head with the skills to optimise the life chanced of their children?

@GleefulGlitch totally 🤣 that poster doesn’t even know what her job is

I think YABU for wading in! All sorts of feelings can come into play here including jealousy (whatever role you do). I feel charities should have skilled, capable people - but they require pay which matches other sectors. However, if you get someone who doesn't earn much, or just disagrees with charities salary rates the discussion can get nasty.

Sorry but I wouldn't donate to a charity that spends so much on paying staff. I do volunteer for a charity. I'm not a CEO or anything like that but it takes up a lot of time and effort. I do it because it makes a huge difference. I donate to charities to make a difference not pay salaries.

Oh crikey I really dont understand this. Am I missing something 🤣😂🤣

Those who CHOOSE to volunteer now think much need and required staff should not get paid at all.....I wonder how long a charity would exist and provide that volunteer role if there were no staff to manage it 🤔

Captskippy you come across very ill informed. How are small, local charities run by under paid staff supposed to solve problems that have reached national crisis point? Cancer for example. 1 in 2 of us will get it at some point in our lifetime. Would you like cures and better treatments to be continued to be found and funded? I'm sure smaller charities do outstanding work but I can guarantee you they won't be doing that. And neither is the government by the way. It's larger charities, who have incredibly skilled and passionate workforces who are tackling these problems. If you want talented people to do their best work, solving our biggest problems we've got to bloody pay them appropriately for it.

However as @Justanotherlurker says very eloquently

That's a first for me, I will take it, my spag is generally shite and I'm more a contrarian bugger under this name.

But whilst the Charity Commission is generally good, it has failed a few times as well, most recent is the Oxfam scandal, the third sector is a bit of a cabal and hard to scrutinise.

@GleefulGlitch

Am I missing something

It's quite clear you are, considering you are trying to dumb down the thread into what you are suggesting.

It's quite clear you are, considering you are trying to dumb down the thread into what you are suggesting.

What am I suggesting?

The wealthiest family in our street (sought-after street in nw London) is headed by a couple who both have top jobs in charities, yes, it does get discussed and irritates most.

Who do you people think run charities? Fairies and gnomes? It's a full time job like any other. Salaries aren't just plucked from the air, if that's what the OP earns then that's the amount they're willing to pay for someone of her skillset.
She's not stealing 150k from a donation pot in your local corner shop. Many charities are given government grants to pay their staff and even if they're not, without the paid staff there would be no charity in the first place!

What am I suggesting?

Well this for a start..

Those who CHOOSE to volunteer now think much need and required staff should not get paid at all....

It's an amazing straw man.

I do volunteer for a charity. I'm not a CEO or anything like that but it takes up a lot of time and effort. I do it because it makes a huge difference. I donate to charities to make a difference not pay salaries

Correct me if I am wrong but isnt the volunteer clearly stating "I donate to charities to make a difference not pay salaries" so they dont believe their donation should pay somebody's wages so staff should be unpaid???

@GleefulGlitch I agree with you.

Donate to charity to make a difference not to pay wages? So your money that you donated just goes and sits in a magical pot does it? A portion of it will pay the wages of the employees within the charity to do the charity work 🤦🏻‍♀️

Those who CHOOSE to volunteer now think much need and required staff should not get paid at all.....I wonder how long a charity would exist and provide that volunteer role if there were no staff to manage it
When charities are turning people down for PAID jobs but telling them to do a 0.5 voluntary position for nothing, that's ridiculous. If there is a role suitable for a professionally qualified person that's 0.5 of a working week then they should bloody well be paying a part time salary for those hours, not trying to get people's professional skills for free by dangling a carrot of 'but maybe that will help you get a job next time one comes up'.

I volunteer and have done for different places over the years. Session volunteers make a massive difference to charities. I also have friends who volunteer to do the books, social media etc for local charities. I have a massive issue with large charities that clearly have the money to pay professionally qualified and experienced staff trying to guilt and manipulate people who want to work in the sector into working for free.
It's no different in my opinion to the media and fashion industries expecting unpaid interns to do loads of work, or pay a pittance. Sure they 'choose' to volunteer but the people up the ladder know exactly what they're doing. It's morally wrong.

When charities are turning people down for PAID jobs but telling them to do a 0.5 voluntary position for nothing, that's ridiculous. If there is a role suitable for a professionally qualified person that's 0.5 of a working week then they should bloody well be paying a part time salary for those hours, not trying to get people's professional skills for free by dangling a carrot of 'but maybe that will help you get a job next time one comes up'.

I agree but as we can see on this thread many believe charities should be paying a pittance for skilled staff or not actually paying them at all. Posters have complained that their donation goes to admin costs well thats staff wages amongst other things.
So they are dammed if they do and dammed if they dont then?

Dont pay people and use volunteers = bad as clearly a job exists.
Pay people to do the role = bad as charities should survive on volunteers only and not pay staff from donations.

Lots of Ostend do seem to think that charities should be run by volunteers, fairies and gnomes. Perhaps the odd pixie thrown in.

No administrators, no HR, no IT, no accountants...nothing unless someone's prepared to do it for free. It's so naive it's laughable.

No, you are not being unreasonable at all. Many people seem to think that everyone working for a charity should do it for nothing/very little, unaware that this would never work in practice. Charities need to attract skills and experience in order to operate, just as businesses do. Many of them are large and complex organisations and some of them carry out work that hovers between the public and 'third' sector, eg health work. Both the organisations and the people in them often work far harder and for much less than they would in other sectors. It's ridiculous to think that charity workers should work for a lower / non market wage. Charitable status is a tax thing at the end of the day.

Posters. Not Ostend. Although there are probably similar attitudes in Belgium.

do seem to think that charities should be run by volunteers, fairies and gnomes. Perhaps the odd pixie thrown in.

Oi!!! I will have you know that at Christmas I was dressed as a fairy for the whole day raising funds 🧚‍♀️

Obscene. If you’re raking in that much money, the charity must be pretty darn sorted by now. It’s a cop-out to say it is merited due to hours worked, etc. Greedy people sticking together to justify their ridiculous salaries. I couldn’t sleep at night but hey on 150k at least you can afford a darn good mattress.

Anyone saying charity workers should be paid a pittance, absolutely not, it is skilled, but 150k?? Come ON!!!