The average salary for a charity sector job listed on a specialist jobs website has fallen by 3% in three years with the number of hybrid roles increasing by 2000%.
CharityJob reported this week that the average salary posted on its site last year was £34,800, compared to £35,700 in 2019.
This is despite salaries for many charity job types increasing during the three-year period, including a 13% rise for roles classified as support work.
The fall in the overall average salary could therefore be due to an increase in the proportion of lower-paid roles, with admin and support worker listings up 55% and 39% respectively.
Overall, the number of jobs listed on the website increased by 35% but demand decreased, making it more of a “candidate-driven market” in 2022.
ACEVO said charity budgets were “stretched extremely thin” but said the reported salary decline was disappointing.
Salary changes
The 61,900 roles posted on the jobs site last year offered an average salary of £34,800, down from £35,700 in 2019.
Adjusting the 2019 salary for inflation (£40,296 according to Bank of England calculations) widens the gap further to a 14% decline.
Average salaries for support work roles increased by 13% to £27,500 while those for HR and campaigning roles both rose by 7%.
The decline in the average salary for a role listed on the CharityJob could therefore be due to an increased proportion of lower-paid jobs in the sector.
Indeed, the number of support worker roles listed in 2022 increased by more than 3,000 on 2019 levels to 12,400.
Admin roles also increased by more than 2,000 over the three-year period to 6,800 in 2022.
A report last year by Pro Bono Economics said that charity workers were being paid 7% less per hour than their counterparts in the wider economy.
More hybrid roles
CharityJob reported that in 2022, 53% of all roles posted were on-site, 35% hybrid, and 12% remote.
This compares to 96% of roles being on-site in 2019, with 2% remote and 2% hybrid.
The company said smaller charities were more likely to offer hybrid working in 2022, whereas large charities had 60% of their listed job roles on-site.
“We saw massive changes to the workplaces of jobs posted on our site. The number of hybrid roles increased by over 2000% from 2019, with remote roles increasing by almost 800%. As expected the number of on-site roles decreased (24%) from 2019 to 2022,” the report says.
Candidate-driven market
CharityJob’s report says that in 2022 there were “far more job vacancies than candidates available to fill them”.
“Whilst we’re beginning to see signs of this changing as we go through 2023, our data from 2022 reflects this tough recruitment market,” it says.
“The number of jobs posted on our website increased by 35% from 2019 to 2022, with 61,900 jobs in 2022. However, demand for jobs decreased, with 13% fewer clicks on apply when compared to 2019.”
ACEVO: Charity budgets ‘stretched extremely thin’
Shareen Patel, policy and influencing officer at ACEVO, said the reported decline in sector pay was disappointing but charities were under intense financial pressures.
“We know that budgets are stretched extremely thin for many charities following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic crisis, meaning that operating costs and demand for services are rising while charitable income has been falling for many,” she said.
“However, staff wellbeing remains a major concern of charity leaders and recruitment and retention of staff through offering fair pay at all levels is a priority in order to ensure a strong and vibrant workforce.
“The reported 3% decrease in average salaries across the sector is disappointing and it will be important to consider this alongside the impact of the increase in flexible working location seen since the Covid-19 pandemic and to compare this with the results from the forthcoming ACEVO CEO Pay and Equalities survey 2023, due later this year.”
Steve Wexler, co-founder of CharityJob, said: “Salary is always a sensitive issue in the charity sector, but in such a difficult recruitment market, it's essential for charities to offer fair pay both to recruit and retain the best talent and to increase diversity in the sector.”
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