Not for the profit, but for the satisfaction? Evidence on worker well-being in non-profit firms

Non-profit firms are often seen as workplaces where people not only work for money, but also find substantial satisfaction in the kind of work they do. Studies looking at compensating wage differentials, however, have only found limited support for this notion. In this paper, a novel approach is undertaken to compare the utilities of non-profit and for-profit employees, by using measures of job satisfaction. The results show that in both the United States and Great Britain over the 1990's, non-profit workers were generally more satisfied with their jobs than for-profit workers. The robustness of the results is explored in detail, and implications for the governance of non-profit firms are shortly discussed.