Pay equity got a big boost this year when President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which extends the period of time for victims of discrimination to sue over unfair wages. But the results of a new survey of nonprofit compensation shows that the gender pay gap persists, even in the world of philanthropy.
The Rollins Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership Center survey of 145 eligible nonprofit organizations found that the average annual compensation in 2009 for male CEOs and executive directors was $110,962 versus $80,987 per year for females.
And while more of the surveyed CEOs and executive directors are women, the center said there are more males in CEO and executive director positions at the largest organizations.
On average, nonprofit CEOs got a boost in pay from the last survey in 2007, when CEOs and executive directors averaged $79,161 in compensation. This year, the average compensation was $93,939.
"Since the two years when we released our initial findings, we’ve seen mounting pressure on nonprofits to compete for talent with their business counterparts, resulting in higher pay at the top-level and a need for more comprehensive benefits for employees at all levels," said Margaret Linanne, executive director of the center.
That doesn’t explain the pay gap, but according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the pay gap exists in nearly all occupations and career levels, from the lowest-paying jobs to the highest.
"Of the over 500 individual occupational categories for which there are sufficient data to calculate a wage ratio, in only five occupations do women earn as much as or more than men," the institute reported in April.
Another pay gap that continues to grow is the one between the average pay for CEOs and the minimum wage. According to the Economic Policy Institute, in 2005 the average CEO salary was 821 times the minimum wage, which at the time was just $5.15 per hour. 
[...] Nonprofit survey finds gender-based wage gap (Daily Tell, [...]
[...] of us who struggle and sacrifice, working twice as hard as our male peers for less status and pay (even in the non-profit world!), this kind of comment strikes a chord. And it’s not self-pity or pain or hang-wringing [...]