My salary is €93,338 says Irish charity boss...do you think this is too much?

jetsonx · 13-11-2014 01:28PM #1

I was shocked to read this on the website of a well known Irish charity.

My salary is €93,338 and all staff have had a pay and increment freeze since 2008. We have also reduced salaries and payscales to manage our payroll costs. We do not, nor can we afford to, pay public service payscales and our pay levels are less than similar roles in the Public service. There are also no fees paid to our voluntary board members.

What do you think - it is too much for a "charity" boss?

http://www.dubsimon.ie/AboutUs/OurFinances.aspx

Nonoperational · 13-11-2014 01:29PM

Nope not really. Depends on his performance.

smash · 13-11-2014 01:30PM

Not a huge amount for a CEO to be honest.

Meathlass · 13-11-2014 01:30PM

No, seems fine. Simon is a very large organization with lots of stakeholders. Do you expect someone to run it for free?

Idraulici · 13-11-2014 01:31PM

Very small amount for a CEO. No complaints from me.

yop · 13-11-2014 01:31PM

Not for a CEO, when you consider TD's are on a lot more than that for what they do then its small money. In the private sector it would be twice or three times that at least.

Sheep Lover · 13-11-2014 01:33PM

Everyone who works for a charity should live off a meagre existence of rooting in bins for food and sucking moss off rocks for sustenance, to set an example to the rest of us.

KeithTS · 13-11-2014 01:33PM

No way.
You get what you pay for. In order for a charity to turn over anything worth while so they can do some good it must be run like a business and you need proper management for that.

If the charity generates more money which is used appropriately to fund projects or whatever with that person at the helm then they deserve a good salary.

13-11-2014 01:33PM

Why do people often think charities or not for profit organisation should be run by people wearing sackcloth and ashes and nearly apologising for getting paid.

Riverireland · 13-11-2014 01:35PM

Not much for a CEO, don't know anything about the man but if he is any good he could get at least twice that or more. Hopefully he is good and is doing it for altruistic reasons.

Custardpi · 13-11-2014 01:37PM

Assuming they're being transparent & not "forgetting" to mention lots of sneaky "top-ups", inflated expenses etc then that actually sounds fair enough for an organisation of that size. Obviously his performance is a key factor. You do need relatively high salaries to attract the right people at that level. That said, some studies I've read claim that this is true only up to a certain level so that increasing a person's salary beyond that is only going to be marginally effective at improving performance. It's not always easy to pinpoint exactly what that level is for a given organisation/industry but the Simon Community would appear to be at least trying to approach the optimum salary for this position.

Francie Barrett · 13-11-2014 01:39PM

I just checked, 151 people are employed by the Simon group. €93k a year to be the CEO of that size of an organisation is actually not a lot.

Duggy747 · 13-11-2014 01:48PM

That's actually pretty reasonable.

But it's more than what I earn so I'm defaulting to "Bah! Bastard!!"

Generic Dreadhead · 13-11-2014 01:53PM

jetsonx wrote: »

I was shocked to read this on the website of a well known Irish charity.
My salary is €93,338

Seems like it's just you

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 13-11-2014 01:54PM

When I was still working I got more than that without, I'd imagine, anything like the responsibility. My pension is not very mush less than that. So is it too much? Not if he his doing his job properly.

seamus · 13-11-2014 02:02PM

Sheep Lover wrote: »

Everyone who works for a charity should live off a meagre existence of rooting in bins for food and sucking moss off rocks for sustenance, to set an example to the rest of us.

Funnily enough, you'd be surprised at the amount of people who seem to think that.

It can be very frustrating for charity staff; when the company wants to cut costs the first thing they do is guilt the staff into taking paycuts because, you know, charity, when these people are in general very poorly paid already.

The second thing they then do is lean more heavily on volunteer work, putting out calls for more volunteers. While volunteers are crucial to many charities, what many well-meaning volunteers don't realise is that the extra free time they're providing for free ends up cutting into a paid person's hours and ultimately ends up with the loss of jobs because the charity is getting more work done for free.

I think most people who work for a charity do so on the understanding that they will never be well paid, but very often they end up getting treated like scroungers taking food out of the mouths of dying babies.

This thread is a perfect example; the guy is performing a specific valuable kind of work which requires specific experience and skills, for about 30% of the going market rate, and the OP is still questioning whether he should be paid less.

The Backwards Man · 13-11-2014 02:04PM

Doesn't bother me.

But then again I wouldn't give any money to a 'charity' that has a CEO as I don't consider them charities.

cloud493 · 13-11-2014 02:04PM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Doesn't bother me.

But then again I wouldn't give any money to a 'charity' that has a CEO as I don't consider them charities.

What is it then?

The Backwards Man · 13-11-2014 02:06PM

cloud493 wrote: »

What is it then?

Fund management.

anncoates · 13-11-2014 02:07PM

A lot of charities are big companies that require an experienced CEO which is going usually going to be market led in terms of wages.

People just see charity and assume you get experienced executives rolling up to work for free.

ancapailldorcha · 13-11-2014 02:12PM

seamus wrote: »

Funnily enough, you'd be surprised at the amount of people who seem to think that.

It can be very frustrating for charity staff; when the company wants to cut costs the first thing they do is guilt the staff into taking paycuts because, you know, charity, when these people are in general very poorly paid already.

The second thing they then do is lean more heavily on volunteer work, putting out calls for more volunteers. While volunteers are crucial to many charities, what many well-meaning volunteers don't realise is that the extra free time they're providing for free ends up cutting into a paid person's hours and ultimately ends up with the loss of jobs because the charity is getting more work done for free.

I think most people who work for a charity do so on the understanding that they will never be well paid, but very often they end up getting treated like scroungers taking food out of the mouths of dying babies.

This thread is a perfect example; the guy is performing a specific valuable kind of work which requires specific experience and skills, for about 30% of the going market rate, and the OP is still questioning whether he should be paid less.

I'm not saying you're wrong but I used to be friendly with a fair few people working at Oxfam and they were regularly treated to well paid placements abroad, lavish expense accounts, training courses and so on... I'd say you're right for a lot of charities but the huge multinationals would evoke little if any sympathy from me.

The figure in the OP does seem a bit high but not high enough to criticise the charity. I'm not sure what the average salary for a CEO is in Ireland but that doesn't seem too bad if they want to attract someone half decent.

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Fund management.

There is a lot of logistics and planning involved. Tetanus vaccines for example which might be donated by a Pharma firm still require shipping, administration, tracking and so on so a lot of the bigger charities need a lot of people over the world to coordinate that.

darkpagandeath · 13-11-2014 02:14PM

Not a huge amount, But we do have a track record in this country of NDA's and alike. Top ups, expenses and all that. If this is the true number fair enough.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i · 13-11-2014 02:15PM

The success of the charity is down to the hard work of the staff. They should be paid well as the work they are doing is considered "good" and benificial to others.

93K looks like a savage amount of money, I know I would love to make that much, but I don't think people realise the responsibility involved in these roles. It's not a fantastic wage for a CEO.

People just see the figure and become annoyed. The tax this man pays a year is quite a lot. I think the take home pay is about 55K. In comparison, somebody on 50K will take home about 34K. Massive tax gap there.

Geuze · 13-11-2014 02:16PM

yop wrote: »

Not for a CEO, when you consider TD's are on a lot more than that for what they do then its small money. In the private sector it would be twice or three times that at least.

TDS wages is about 87k.

daveyeh · 13-11-2014 02:20PM

I'd rather give money to the actual people in need than see a large percentage of it disappear into the cost of running a business.

CEO wage rates put me off donating.

Grayson · 13-11-2014 02:22PM

there was a charity boss in the papers last year.people were saying he was paid too much. Turns out though that since he took over the charity has increased it's income by a factor of three.

If the guy can raise that much more money, he's worth every penny the charity paid him.

fastrac · 13-11-2014 02:23PM

Charities got used to easy money during the boom and are now finding it very hard to make the adjustment to the reality of 2014.Look at the boards of the Charities that dominate in Ireland and you will find the same names over and over. Another Irish Golden Circle.

One eyed Jack · 13-11-2014 02:31PM

Grayson wrote: »

there was a charity boss in the papers last year.people were saying he was paid too much. Turns out thou that since he took over the charity has increased it's income by a factor of three.

If the guy can raise that much more money, he's worth every penny the charity paid him.

Nail on the head. I had a quick look at their 2012 financials there from the link, and for someone who's income hasn't increased since 2008, he still managed to oversee income for the charity from various sources that amounted to over TEN times his salary!

There are CEOs in Fortune 500 companies wouldn't manage that sort of return for their salaries!

Don Kedick · 13-11-2014 02:33PM

People aren't shocked by that number because they know of others receiving far more. Some people are way overpaid.

Irishcrx · 13-11-2014 03:10PM

It'll keep him out of dumpster diving anyway, the rest of us though...Keep your diving boards..

Irishcrx · 13-11-2014 03:15PM

I work in a building with a well known 'Charity' , although it's one of the larger and well known one's it's a profit making organisation at source. Their CEO ended up in the paper last year over his salary and a couple of other thing's that were knocking about.

A few weeks before he had bought a new Mercedes and parks it in the building, once the story hit the newspapers he turned up the next day in a 99 banger that he must have borrowed from his maid at home or quickly bought on done deal for €200 the evening before. I ran into him in the car park that morning , he looks at me...I look at him , then the car...I know...He knows , he looks at the ground and walks off...

Seriously like, do you expect the fool people with that trick into thinking your poor or something??

My salary is €93,338 says Irish charity boss...do you think this is too much?

Comments