[mschuster91]

The problem is not per se that execs at NPOs pocket millions of dollars. After all, that is the market rate - and NPOs have an interest in attracting (and retaining!) high quality staff.

NPOs and NGOs should not have to depend on people willing to exploit themselves for the cause, not on the leadership level and not on the base level (where this is even more common).

The problem is rather that CxO payment in general has gone through the roof over the last 60 years, with the problem becoming ever worse since the fall of the USSR. The ratio of CxO to average worker pay was 20-to-1 in 1965, 58-to-1 in 1989 - and in 2018 it hit 278-to-1!

[tasogare]

> The problem is not per se that execs at NPOs pocket millions of dollars.

It is, because money is not infinite so those resources spend on high level execs could be spend way effectively elsewhere.

> interest in attracting (and retaining!) high quality staff.

I know ton of high quality people (researchers) and they aren’t pay millions of dollars. A C-level desk warmer could do its job as effectively if paid a high, yet decent (in comparison to the average wage) amount.

[mschuster91]

> A C-level desk warmer could do its job as effectively if paid a high, yet decent (in comparison to the average wage) amount.

The problem is you won't even find a desk warmer, at least none with actual experience in leading a ~750 employees organization, without taking part in the wage racket.

The only ones you'll end up hiring are either newbies wanting to use your organization as a "career trampoline" (which is bad because you want stability, not a change of course every other year) or failures that don't have a chance anywhere else.

The system must be fixed, and the system is absurd CxO pay. Relying on individuals sacrificing themselves/their orgs won't work.