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Multnomah County briefing spotlights nonprofit wage gap and recommends contract reforms
Summary
A Nonprofit Association of Oregon‑commissioned study presented to the Multnomah County Board found nonprofit wages in Oregon lag public and private sectors and flagged high turnover; presenters and county staff recommended COLAs, rebasing and administrative changes to contracting and payment practices.
Multnomah County commissioners heard data and policy recommendations on Wednesday aimed at narrowing a persistent wage gap in the nonprofit human‑services sector.
The Nonprofit Association of Oregon presented a study, summarized by Echo Northwest economist Kevin Cahill, that compared nonprofit wages, turnover and workforce characteristics to those in the public and private sectors. Cahill said the nonprofit sector employs about 10.4 percent of Oregon’s wage and salary workers and reported substantially higher turnover: roughly a third of nonprofit workers left the sector within 18 months in the study’s sample. After controlling for occupation and worker characteristics, the analysis found nonprofit workers earned between about 5 percent and 15 percent less than comparable workers in the for‑profit sector and about 11 percent less than public‑sector counterparts. Cahill described the gap as “evidence of wage suppression.”
The Nonprofit Association of Oregon urged policy changes that would put more resources into…
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