| Discussion Room Thread |
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 Charities' Salaries |
| By bvilks - 24 Feb 10 |
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 2 Replie(s)
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bvilks |
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Wed Mar 03, 2010 1:45 pm |
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Hi there. I am writing to express my frustration with North American charities. It seems to me, that no matter how good the charity, salaries are too high -- at least from the perspective of what the cost of living actually is. Take Mennonite Central Committee, for example. I understand this is a charity that the Simple Way works with to provide the drilling of wells in Two-thirds World Countries. It turns out that at the Canadian MCC, the top salary is just under $70,000, the next one is $57,000 and the next three are somewhere under $57,000 (but above $40,000). This is way above the cost of living!! I know this for a fact, because I am currently on Ontario Disabilty, for which I receive less than $14,000 a year (my Mom drives me around a lot, due to personal problems, and I calculated that if I had to take cabs instead it would be another $2,000). So it is entirely possible to live in Toronto, pay rent (I currently pay $450 a month including utilities; for five years I paid $450 a month not including utilities) and pay a tithe on $16,000 or less a year! I mean, even if one's rent is $1000 a month and one has other additional expenses one absolutely does not NEED more than a MAXIMUM of $25,000 to live quite comfortably, at least in Toronto! I can understand if the salary recipients are taking care of additional dependents, but that is probably not the case in all or even many cases. And this seems to be the pattern with all charities, even the best ones. I don't understand why, if these charities are so involved with serving the poor, they can't pay their workers a salary that shows some solidarity with the poor they are involved with.
Yes, I can understand that a TYPICAL salary for a Canadian employee might be above $50,000, but what about all the admonitions in the Bible about sharing with the poor and blessed are the poor etc.? Maybe it's time for some of these charities to seriously pray and meditate about these issues. I mean, if they were offering salaries of less than $30,000 -- less than $40,000 even -- then they would be CERTAIN to attract workers who are truly dedicated and committed to being in solidarity with the poor.
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robbnanc |
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Thu Mar 11, 2010 8:57 am |
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I am not going to justify these salary levels (I used to work for MCC and was paid in the range you mention) but I understand where they come from. In North America a salary not only covers basic living but what I hear most often from folks is they need to put money away for kids' educations, save for retirement, support other family members... And the list goes on. In other words, we have come to accept that certain things are necessary for success in our society: higher education for our kids, comfortable retirements during which we maintain some level of independence, etc.
Few of these things are ever debated within faith communities and to speak of NOT having them is to be seen as "irresponsible". It is beyond time for us to critically examine these "needs" but until we do salaries at these levels (and keep in mind that MCC's levels are LOW compared to many faith-based NGOs) will continue.
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lesortiz |
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Sat Mar 13, 2010 3:11 pm |
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I agree with you that many of the salaries for Non Profit Organizations are way out of balance. I read an article several years ago that said that the American Red Cross director makes over 600,000 dollars a year! And only about 60% of monies received by the Red Cross go to the actual cause, the rest is eaten up by salaries and cost of doing "business." By comparison the director of the Salvation Army has a salary under 40,000 US dollars and the Salvation Army and other nonprofits such as the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) give over 92% of all money received goes directly to what you sent it for. Those companies also work directly with the poorest of the poor.
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