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Comment by DanBC | Hacker News Reader

Kind of depressing that the largest charity in the world pays just enough to live.

http://www.economist.com/node/6919139

What? A charity's purpose is to help those most in need. Every dollar a charity gives to someone beyond what they need is a dollar they can't give to someone whose needs still aren't met.

Or they could enable a smaller number of people to get an education and leave poverty.

One might argue that by paying more they could attract better employees and became more efficient at helping the people in need.

Or they could just invest that capital elsewhere and make those employees redundant via automation. I vote for that one, less workplace drama if your co-workers are robotic.

I think you missed reading the linked to article. According to the article, IKEA is actually legally incorporated as a charity, though it's only "charitable" purpose is "innovation in the field of architectural and interior design," and the charitable foundation appears to only be a shell built to avoid taxes and funnel money to the founder (in order to maintain the facade, it donates minute amounts to the Lund Institute of Technology).

So IKEA, despite being from all outward appearances a privately held for-profit enterprise, it technically categorized as a charity, and despite all of this pays many of its employees below a living wage, though has now promised to start paying them a living wage, at least according to this calculator.

Oh, I read the article. I object specifically to the idea of my parent, that -being a charity- implies they should be giving their employees more. As if charities were in the business of being generous.

Some charities even use completely unpaid labor!

Charities should not be in the business of enriching their employees. They should be paying as little as possible.

Really? So if there was no minimum wage laws, a charity aimed at bringing people out of poverty should be paying their employees a cent an hour?

Volunteers don't get paid anything at all, and many do quite a good job helping their communities.

some volunteers pay to do labor! That way you REALLY know it's voluntary.

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