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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel outraged at my friends re charity salaries?

879 replies

Pissedoffandbored · 03/07/2019 20:54

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?

OP posts:
ZenNudist · 03/07/2019 21:19

Doesn't the PM earn way waaay less than she could in the private sector? (Misses point).

£150k is too much for a charity job. I couldn't live with myself. But then executive salaries are so over inflated this is what passes for reasonable. Is it board level? Its obscene what the overall wage bill must be.

Which charity? It really puts you off donating.

SuzieQ10 · 03/07/2019 21:20

People at the top of charitable organisations do earn well. It entirely depends on how effectively the charity is run (& least amount of wastage) as to whether the salary awarded is fair. It would be no good paying someone a lot less who was hopeless and wasted resources. In theory, more productive to hire someone very good at managing the charity (incentive = great salary) to make sure it's successful.

But I agree with your acquaintance that the salaries are surprisingly high.

NCforpoo · 03/07/2019 21:20

I work for a big charity- one of the biggest. Our CEO doesn't earn 150k.
I earn about 30k for a relatively senior position. (Say 4 below CEO).
But all our social media is about how We all drive rolls Royces and fly business class. We don't. We're a bunch of people being paid under the odds to work on something we feel passionate about. And it's really competitive to get a job there.
I could earn easily double in the private sector. I choose not to. Some days I feel like an idiot though!
So yeah I get annoyed. Though no one has ever said it to my face.
I do think 100k for the CEO with responsibility for hundreds of people, high profile, managing millions on biblically donated funds doesn't seem that much. You want them to be good at what they do right?

StarbucksSmarterSister · 03/07/2019 21:21

saying people don’t deserve to earn more than PM.

Most of them are much better at their job than the PM is too.

Many people in this country have no idea what the CEO of a charity does because they think of small local charities not those that help hundreds of thousands of people. A PP said charities are businesses now: yes they are, because they have to be (No I don't work for one, BTW.)

BloggersNet · 03/07/2019 21:22

Yabu, couple of my acquaintances work in large charities and since I learned more about the sector, especially the big ones, I no longer give any donations to them. I have more confidence in some of the local small charities so i still donate to those ones.

NCforpoo · 03/07/2019 21:22

And in my organisation it's 90p of every £1 donated goes to the cause. So yes 10p of your donation is paying my salary

notangelinajolie · 03/07/2019 21:23

If you work for a charity and earn more than the PM then, yes I would say that is perfectly good grounds for some people to think your salary is obscene.

PinkiOcelot · 03/07/2019 21:26

Puts me off donating to charities tbh, if the money doesn’t even go to charity but goes to pay some workers mega bucks. I wonder if these mega bucks earners actually donate?!

S1naidSucks · 03/07/2019 21:28

Reverse.

No one would be stupid enough to come on here complaining that they were told they earn to much, would they? If they are that stupid, then they really are overpaid. 😁

AmIRightOrAMeringue · 03/07/2019 21:29

If they feel so strongly about it maybe they should volunteer.

Its supply and demand. They already pay less than the private sector because people want to help, but if they paid minimum wage then they would probably get unskilled people working for them, as skilled people will have s minimum salary they will work for. And 150k for being the CEO of a large organisation isn't much! It's a small percentage of the obscene salaries that other CEOs get and that's without the bonus, shares and other benefits.

What do they honestly think would happen to the charities if they slashed their wage bills? If they think the charity would still get as much donations in and still magically be processed then they are deluding themselves

dinnerpartyhell · 03/07/2019 21:29

Yes of course if you are earning more than the Prime Minister for a charity, you are clearly fleecing both the charity snd the people that donate. No one is THAT good!
I donate a great deal of money to charities and I would be incandescent with rage to learn they were paying such high salaries, and would stop donations immediately, ultimately denying the people and animals in need.

Original poster
Pissedoffandbored · 03/07/2019 21:29

Yes I earn marginally over £150k. It’s a CEO position. I work 7 days a week, work exceptionally long hours and am never able to be fully ‘out of office’. I was aghast when I asked what they think I should earn and they said around £50k which is ludicrous. Charities need good people and that means paying the going rate. In non-charitable roles a person in my position might earn double if not triple my salary. I accept the lower salary (even though in relative terms I understand it’s high) because I’m working for a charity after all but this notion of paying bargain basement salaries and still attracting the cream of the crop is a fallacy and it just doesn’t work.

OP posts:
overnightangel · 03/07/2019 21:29

If a charity is paying someone more than the PM I wouldn’t be donating to them

Branleuse · 03/07/2019 21:30

i dont care if the people earning money out of old ladies donations who think theyre giving to beat cancer or saving children, are good at what they do or not, any more than i care if the CEO of amazon or microsoft are good at what they do because ultimately more money is going to these people than is actually going to the cause. Its a business, nothing more at this stage.
CEO of oxfam raking it in, while sending abusers to rape the local children, and preying on the working class and exploiting volunteers in the meantime.
CEO of NSPCC on 165k a year, while begging people on a tiny fraction of that to give more, while their high ranking officials wank off in gimp masks on the job. Unethical.

LellyMcKelly · 03/07/2019 21:31

I’d quite happily pay a charity staff member £150k if they could bring in a million pounds in donations. That’s what they’re paid for.

overnightangel · 03/07/2019 21:32

@Pissedoffandbored if you think a salary of around 50k is “ludicrous” you should be nowhere near running a charity, I certainly wouldn’t trust you to handle money with that attitude. You’ve actually made my blood boil

LolaSmiles · 03/07/2019 21:33

What I don't understand is that senior figures in charities always cite their talent, their skills etc as essential and how their astronomical salaries are needed to recruit and retain talent, but then the people actually doing the work are largely volunteers, people volunteering hoping to get their foot in for a paid position, and the paid positions (often requiring specialist skills) are paid lower than private sector or public sector and without the same protections.
It's almost like salary matters because the people in the offices are so uniquely talented, but if you're on the front line then you should work for free because surely you do this for the warm fuzzy feeling of helping.

It seems hypocritical to me.

fiorentina · 03/07/2019 21:33

I’m with you, I think like any business, a charity needs to attract good people to undertake key roles and needs to be competitive versus other similar roles. Otherwise you get the situation where only those who are already reasonably well off can afford to take the role. That doesn’t create a balanced and dynamic team?

MamaWeasel · 03/07/2019 21:33

I'm afraid I agree with your friends.....

Mydogmylife · 03/07/2019 21:34

Assuming this is not some kind of wind up, please tell me the charity you work for so I can ensure that I do not donate any further!!!

overnightangel · 03/07/2019 21:35

In short, YABU

noenergy · 03/07/2019 21:35

150k is. Ridiculously high salary which you are getting from people's charity donations. It will be the fundraisers doing all the hard graft and fundraising.

150k could feed so many people in a poor country. Not sure which type of charity you work for but I don't think anyone should get more than 40k.

Loveislandaddict · 03/07/2019 21:35

I think it’s perfectly reasonable for someone in the charitable sector to earn a comparable salary to someone in the non-charitable sector.

Mydogmylife · 03/07/2019 21:35

@overnightangel

Spot on !

StarbucksSmarterSister · 03/07/2019 21:36

I was aghast when I asked what they think I should earn and they said around £50k which is ludicrous.

They're delusional. I'm a PA and earn 40K plus bonus!

My last boss was the UK CEO of an international company (private sector) and with bonus he must have been earning 400K.