Re: “structurally suppressed”, any thoughts on alternative phrasing that’d better capture the wage gap dynamic? “systematically lower?” Happy to make an edit…
I’m fully in agreement that lower salaries screen for more cause-motivated people. I just think we can find better screens that correlate less with things that we don’t care about, like privilege.
I agree that higher salaries are a turnoff to donors, and I suspect even EA donors. Various forms of overhead aversion are strong even among people who totally get that it’s rational to trade money for impact. I once heard a talk by a researcher who studies overhead aversion (Ayelet or Uri Gneezy I believe) where they opened by saying they intellectually understand that a nonprofit CEO might be more productive if they fly first class so they’re rested for a big meeting, but they’d be pissed if they donated to that charity and then walked by that CEO on their way to coach. I think that’s just human nature (and suggests a particular need for EA donors can look past that mindset).
Agree that the right compensation strategy probably involves looking for a middle ground. I’ve started a separate thread to operationalize that discussion.
Thanks David!
Re: “structurally suppressed”, any thoughts on alternative phrasing that’d better capture the wage gap dynamic? “systematically lower?” Happy to make an edit…
I’m fully in agreement that lower salaries screen for more cause-motivated people. I just think we can find better screens that correlate less with things that we don’t care about, like privilege.
I agree that higher salaries are a turnoff to donors, and I suspect even EA donors. Various forms of overhead aversion are strong even among people who totally get that it’s rational to trade money for impact. I once heard a talk by a researcher who studies overhead aversion (Ayelet or Uri Gneezy I believe) where they opened by saying they intellectually understand that a nonprofit CEO might be more productive if they fly first class so they’re rested for a big meeting, but they’d be pissed if they donated to that charity and then walked by that CEO on their way to coach. I think that’s just human nature (and suggests a particular need for EA donors can look past that mindset).
Agree that the right compensation strategy probably involves looking for a middle ground. I’ve started a separate thread to operationalize that discussion.