Salary Survey 2006

What size is your packet?

Are the salaries of employees in the voluntary and community sector reflective of job roles? Do organisations provide competitive benefits and a pension scheme for their staff? Do the salaries, benefits and pension schemes in the voluntary and community sector compare with the private sector? What is it like to work in the sector?

The voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland is an exciting and challenging environment to work in but the resources to foster development and growth are not always in place.The 2006 Salary Survey research focuses on the salaries of different job levels within the voluntary and community sector. In addition to building upon the findings of the 2001 Salary Survey this research also compares its findings with similar research completed in the private sector to establish if the gap in salaries between the private and voluntary and community sectors still exists.

The issues of salaries and benefits are of huge interest to the sector. Organisations are trying to provide their staff with competitive pay and benefits in an attempt to reduce the high turnover of staff and the costs of recruitment campaigns. Evidence of this can be seen when examining the number of downloads concerning NJC Scales. This is one of the most popular articles to be downloaded from the Community NI website.

Pensions are also of huge concern in all sectors. Issues concerning pensions and the retirement age have dominated discussions within government and in the media over recent months. In an ageing society it is vital that older people receive a fair and adequate retirement income. This has led to an increased number of organisations in the sector offering employees a pension scheme.

Key findings

The first section looks at employment composition in the voluntary and community sector.

• The majority of employees in the sector have an average age of between 31 and 50.
• 18.4% of employees in responding organisations are full-time male workers, 44.5% of overall employees are female and work full time.
• Over one quarter of organisations have difficulties with recruitment. The most prominent difficulty with regard to recruitment is the lack of specialist skills from prospective candidates.

The second section of the report focuses on pay and conditions in the sector:

• 14% of organisations felt that the benefits package they offer employees has had a negative impact on recruitment.
• Nearly 60% of organisations operate occupational sick pay schemes in excess of the statutory minimum.
• The 2001 Salary Survey found that 49% of organisation had pay links with specific payscale, in 2006 that has increased to just over 67%.

The final section of the report examines any changes or developments in salaries and benefits in the sector since 2001. This section also looks at recent research produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on salaries and benefits in the private sector and provides a comparison with the voluntary and community sector.

• Over 50% of organisations in the private sector and just over 54% of organisations involved in the voluntary and community sector provide flexible working policies.
• Overall this research found that 43% of organisations offer staff an occupational pension scheme of which 98% are contributory in nature.

Additional information

For further information on this research please contact Andrea Burke.

andrea.burke@nicva.org
028 9087 7777

If you would like to order a copy of this report please contact Lynn Anderson.

lynn.anderson@nicva.org
028 9087 7777

Or to order the report online visit http://www.communityni.org/store/

There is a charge of £50 per copy for non-voluntary and community organisations, £30 for organisations that are not NICVA members and £10 for NICVA full members.