Are Nonprofits More Equitable than For-Profits? An Estimate of the Gender Pay Gap in the US Human Services Field

Using a nationally representative dataset, this paper examines the nonprofit/for-profit difference in the gender pay gap specifically within the human services field. This industry-specific analysis is necessary because nonprofit organizations are concentrated in these fields. Unlike the conventional finding (based on economy-wide analyses) that the gender pay gap is smaller in nonprofits, this study does not find a significant nonprofit/for-profit difference in the gender pay gap within the human services. In addition, it examines the nonprofit pay differential for both female and male human services workers relative to their for-profit counterparts and finds an overall wage premium for nonprofit men.