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Comment by chasing | Hacker News Reader

That's a very pejorative and mostly inaccurate way of putting it.

"Non-profit" doesn't mean people can't earn good money -- it means the organization exists for a purpose other than profit and, therefore, gets some tax breaks.

Most people I know who work in non-profits are paid below-market for their skills.

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> Most people I know who work in non-profits are paid below-market for their skills.

This is true, but orthogonal - the complaint is about how much the bosses make, not how much the workers make.

And the fact that they are using their non-profit status as an excuse to pay their employees less than market value, while the executive suite cashes huge check,s is deplorable.

No, non-profits tend to underpay simply because they often have less money. Well-funded non-profits probably pay at-market rates. Or higher.

What for profit organization is desperately trying to hire Nathan Hatch away from Wake Forest for more than $4 million a year? Has anyone ever gone from running a university to running a fortune 500 company, or is that a comparison strictly designed to flatter?

I'd like to mention that the NFL was a nonprofit until 2015 or 2016.

The head office, not the teams. And almost all of the income comes in via the teams.

> it means the organization exists for a purpose other than profit

The guy making $4 million/year in salary doesn't seem to have gotten that memo.

You're misunderstanding the term "profit" in the legal phrase "non-profit."

I'm not defending high salaries at all non-profits. Yes, some people are overpaid despite being at a non-profit. But don't be confused about what the term "non-profit" means.

I'm a corporate attorney. I'm pretty sure I know what it means.

The grunts are paid below market rate, while the top execs get paid huge sums of money. It's all a scam.

"it means the organization exists for a purpose other than profit"

Do the laws we have actually reflect this distinction? Or is it just the "profit" going to executives and asset managers instead of shareholders?

Most people I know feel they are paid below-market for their skills.

profits come after labor is paid, so how labor is paid is separate from how profits are spent. there's maybe a certain sort of nobility in a worker accepting to be underpaid to work at a non-profit they care about, but that maybe-certain-sort-of nobility doesn't transfer to the company underpaying its workers.

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