[foundation-board] Modelling employment costs

[Jason Kitcat]

On 25 Aug 2011, at 18:46, Becky Hogge wrote:
> On 23 August 2011 00:17, Jason Kitcat <jason.kitcat at okfn.org> wrote:
>>> On 22 Aug 2011, at 19:49, Jordan S Hatcher wrote:
>>> * It looks like the models are based around the employment costs equivalent to maintaining paying people the same day rate, except as salary.  Typically being employed reflects a decrease in gross earnings per day over being a consultant due to the other advantages one gets as an employee (statutory leave, maternity/paternity leave, etc).  Do you have any thoughts on this difference in your model and how we might do budgeting here?
>> 
>> Most on my proposed list are on pretty low wages anyway e.g. Lucy and Kat. Jonathan and I are on roughly £35k pro rata and would be justified in seeking that in a salaried position.
> 
> I think Jordan has a point here, Jason - without factoring in some of
> the added benefits into a salary reduction, we're giving everyone
> automatic pay rises. Also, my hunch is those are generous salaries for
> this sector - I'd like to see you working from some more data on
> equivalent positions in small NGOs/non-profits.

I'd beg to differ. Most people will be in take-home-pay terms worse off. As employees they will pay more national insurance so like-for-like their monthly cash in hand will be lower as employees than as self-employed contractors. OKF will also be worse off as we will have to pay employer's NI.

Of course staff will have more rights like paid holiday, parental leave, sick pay etc which is hard to quantify - we currently have very low sickness absences and I don't see that changing. People work for OKF out of passion more than anything else!

Most of ORG's staff, who are all salaried, are in the £30-37k range apart from one part-time finance person and one events person who is a first-jobber.

> We need to act sensitively here, and I doubt that defining salaries is
> a role for the Board. But the Board should be concerned about
> maintaining OKF as a sustainable organisation, and keeping the right
> balance between staff who feel valued and overheads that don't cripple
> us every year to meet is part of that.


I completely agree - which is why I propose the number of people on salary low. However as discussed at the board meeting, we technically should be employing many of these people already so there is a possible NI liability hovering over us. This move removes that uncertainty.

We need to move in this direction. So in doing so we will need to keep improving factoring these core costs into bids and paid work. Whilst I strongly welcome the caution and concern, I think we're a long way from being an organisation which exists just to keep funding itself.

All the best,
Jason

--
Jason Kitcat
Foundation Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation

+44 (0) 7956 886 508

http://www.okfn.org
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