US Recession Hits NFP Executive Salaries
14 September 2011 at 12:42 pm
The economic recession in the United States has had a dramatic affect on Not for Profit executive compensation, according to a new report from Not for Profit information provider Guidestar.
The report also found that while the overall percentage of women in CEO roles has increased, female compensation continues to lag behind that of males.
The Guidestar Nonprofit Compensation Report looks at how the US recession has affected salaries and benefits across the Not for Profit sector, and reveals that the economic downturn played a role in lessening compensation. The 2011 report is the 11th edition of the annual report, provide a decade long analysis of compensation trends.
In 2008, median increases in incumbent CEO compensation were generally 4 percent or higher. In 2009, increases were generally 2 percent or less.
Median compensation of females continued to lag behind that of males when considering comparable positions at similar organizations. The gap ranged from 13.4 percent for CEOs at organizations with budgets of $250-$500 thousand to 24.6 percent at organizations with budgets of more than $50 million.
The report says the gender pay-gap is improving, with the gap narrowing for most sizes of organisations since 1999 – except for organisations in the $1-$5 million range where the gap has increased.
Since 1999, the percentage of female CEOs has increased for organizations of all sizes – however female CEO’s are most likely to be found running small organisations.
The majority of organizations with budgets of $1 million or less have women as CEOs, however amongst organisations with budgets of more than $50 million only 16% have female CEOs.
The report reviews the compensation practices of 88,000 US Not for Profit organisations for the 2009 fiscal year.
Guidestar CEO Bob Ottenhoff says it’s not surprising that the down economy has taken its toll on the compensation of the sector's leaders.
Ottenhoff says given that employees are the sector’s greatest assets, it's more important than ever to establish and benchmark compensation ranges that will attract and retain skillful employees, which ultimately will lead to higher-performing nonprofits.
The 2011 GuideStar Nonprofit Compensation Report is available for purchase here www.guidestar.org/compensationreport
