(image from pexels.com)
Nonprofits are a major employer in virtually every state and territory in the United States with wages a crucial component of state economies. Nonprofits in most states retained more of their workforce than their for-profit counterparts in 2020 during the onset of the COVID pandemic.
Wages at nonprofit increased faster than for-profit wages in the majority of states during the post-pandemic recovery period. However, nonprofits in most states struggled to keep up with for-profits during the first two years of recovery from the pandemic in 2021 and 2022.
Those are a few of the state-by-state highlights in the recently released Nonprofit Employment in the States, 2017-2022, researched and released by The Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise in George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government.
The 12.8 million paid workers employed by U.S. nonprofits as of 2022 accounted for 9.9% of the total U.S. private (i.e., non-governmental) workforce, highlighting the nonprofit sector’s role as a vital driver of employment across the nation.
The data show nonprofits exceeded the national average of 9.9% of private employment in 26 states and the District of Columbia, and account for 15% or more of the private workforce in 10 states and Washington D.C. The high end of nonprofit employment were the District of Columbia (25.2%), Vermont (19.8%), and Massachusetts (17.6%).
Nonprofits fell below 5% of private employment in only two states — Nevada (2.8%) and Alabama (4.8%).
Between 2017 (the last year for which data were previously available) and 2022, U.S. nonprofits added just fewer than 277,500 jobs, an increase of 2.2%. On the state level, employment changes varied widely, with 17 states, Washington D.C, and Puerto Rico seeing reductions in the nonprofit workforce ranging from a low of -0.2% in Missouri (426 jobs) to a high of -4.8% in Mississippi (2,639 jobs).
U.S. nonprofits paid more than $8.73 billion in wages to their 12.8 million employees during 2022. Average annual nonprofit wages
per employee increased significantly between 2017 and 2022, growing by 27.4% per employee. That means the average nonprofit employee earned $14,728 more in 2022 than during 2017. On the state and territory level, wages were up across the board, exceeding 20% in all but Washington D.C. (19.1%, or $14,248) and Puerto Rico (15.8% or $4,115), the smallest dollar increase.
In 32 states, wages increased at a faster rate than the national average, with Kansan nonprofit workers receiving the largest percent raise (38.6%, or $14,549) and New Jersey’s nonprofit workers receiving the largest real dollar bump at $17,138 (a 31.5% increase over 2017 salaries).
While nonprofit jobs are generally believed to be low-paying compared to jobs in the business sector, that is not supported by the data. In fact, U.S. nonprofits overall paid nearly the same average weekly wages as for-profits in 2022, at 97 cents on the dollar. In 28 states, nonprofit average weekly wages exceeded those paid by for-profit industry.
To read the full report, click here.
