What impact, if any, does a higher minimum wage have on your organization and the people that you serve? Is it good or bad for your clients? Your staff?
It is amazing to me we are talking about effects of minimum wage
increases on voluntary organisations. For my PhD, I just completed a
study concerned with various aspects of human resource management in 13
british and 13 canadian nonprofits. British nonprofits tend to pay
employees at most levels what they would receive if they worked for
government-- decent wages, benefits. Secretarial and admin people are
paid BETTER than they are in the public sector and the private sector
for comparable work. Senior people, or professional staff, are usually
not quite so well paid. On the other hand the Canadian nonprofits are
dismal when it comes to pay. Invariably wages are tied to how
successful fundraising from governments and grants has been. Canadian
nonprofits tend to hire people on rolling contracts or part time not on
permanent status. Wages are usually about 25-30% lower than they would
be in the public sector for similar jobs. This is not so in the UK.
There is more to tell!
Also about the question why do women earn 10% less than men in
fundraising jobs. I'm afraid systemic discrimination does have
something to do with it. The easiest way of looking at it is that women
across the board in all occupations in Canada earn about 70% of what men
earn. That's a fact. Another point may be that women tend not to ask
for as much as men when they negotiate their own salaries-- this is due
to many things including the fact they don't believe they are worth the
money, they are afraid of being rejected for the job if they ask for too
much, etc. A final word is that when boards, or executive directors,
set a salary range for a given job, they are likely more inclined to pay
the men at the top of the scale and the women in the middle or lower.
This is because of the old (and still existent) idea of the "family
wage" -- that men support a family, while women typically do not.
I find it quite amazing some of the writers on this list say out right
that men may be "worth" more in terms of salary. Aside from the
subjectivity of that comment, there is also the fact the writers have no
idea about the systemic discrimination women (and minorities) face.
--- Judy Haiven, Dept of Management, St Mary's University, Halifax
