Making payroll: Nonprofits and the minimum wage

A movement is under way to raise the federal minimum wage, and the face of that movement is the fast-food worker. In September, hundreds were arrested in protests for higher pay. This followed coordinated job walkouts in 2012 and 2013. These days, I get a lot of advocacy e-mails supporting a higher minimum wage—and they almost always include a quote from a Mc­Donald’s, Subway, or Burger King employee.

It’s a savvy strategy. Putting fast-food workers in the center of the debate provides sympathetic and effective spokespeople; it also shines a spotlight on fast-food executives and the megacorporations they run. With corporate profits soaring and American CEOs making hundreds of times the salary of the average worker, these are perfect villains.

But there are other low-wage employers. One group in particular might elicit a more sympathetic response: nonprofit organizations. Many nonprofits, including some faith-based charities and social service organizations, find themselves in the unenviable role of fighting poverty while paying poverty wages. Even professional nonprofit staffers often feel undercompensated, as a 2012 Chronicle of Philanthropy survey confirmed, and many classes of nonprofit employees are truly in the low-wage category: child- and elder-care workers, home health aides, custodians, food service workers, and others.