Whither the Nonprofit Wage Differential? Estimates from the 1990 Census

Abstract

This article provides new estimates of the nonprofit/for‐profit wage differential in the U.S. economy. Using observations on 4.1 million private‐sector employees from the 1990 census, I find either zero or slightly positive economy‐wide wage differences between nonprofit and for‐profit employees in a standard earnings equation format. Significant wage differentials are found at the disaggregated occupation and industry level and provide a basis for testing hypotheses explaining nonprofit/for‐profit wage differences.