The nonprofit wage differential

Fong, Cecilia.

Cover for The nonprofit wage differential

View/Open

View/Open: fongCecilia.pdf (245kB) Bookview

Creator

Fong, Cecilia.

Description

Thesis (M.P.P.)--Georgetown University, 2009.; Includes bibliographical references. Among the images the nonprofit sector evokes is that of significantly lower paid employees. Many have theorized why such a pay gap exists, but few have substantiated this wage differential claim. This thesis sets out to determine if the nonprofit wage differential is perceived or, in fact, real.; A basic statistical analysis reveals that the mean wage for a for-profit employee is $14,207 greater than that of a nonprofit employee. Yet, knowing many different factors determine an individual's wage, the question remains whether this difference can be justified or whether individuals are actually penalized for accepting employment in the nonprofit sector. Results of these multivariate regression models reveal that, while holding constant various measures of individual characteristics, nonprofit employees face a nonprofit pay penalty of $15.65%, or $8,895. This result confirms the general notion that nonprofit employees receive significantly lower wages compared to their for-profit counterparts even though they all have obtained a Bachelor's degree or higher, work the same number of hours per week, are the same gender, have the same marital status, and are of the same race.; Using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) conducted by the United States Census Bureau, a multivariate regression model tests the hypothesis that there exists a nonprofit wage differential, regardless of an individual's personal attributes. The findings of this analysis and their potentially detrimental effects to the nonprofit workforce, nonprofit sector, and the community-at-large will be further discussed in this thesis.