Whither the nonprofit wage differential? Estimates from the 1990 census

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.