Oregon Employment Department Report

Summary from the Nonprofit Association of Oregon

As they do every year, the Oregon Employment Department released their study, Oregon’s Nonprofits in 2020, which looks at employment in the nonprofit sector for 2020.

With all the turmoil last year, the not unexpected bad news is that the nonprofit sector lost over 10,000 jobs in 2020. and we already know that as restrictions have been lifted and the state opens up, many of those jobs are being rehired and new ones are even being created. Some good news from the OED report is that nonprofit average annual pay and median hourly wage keep increasing year-over-year.

This statistical study of employment in the nonprofit sector across the state is an important bell-weather to track trends and see how we are doing in raising wages, and after a year like 2020, recovering from losses. Here are a few of the highlights from the report I think are especially interesting:

• Oregon has 10,000 nonprofits employing staff (the other nonprofits are all-volunteer led)

• Oregon nonprofits employed 185,800 people in 2020. (That represents a loss of about 10,000 jobs in the sector as compared to 2018 and 2019)

• 64% of nonprofit employment was in health care and social assistance

• In 2020, the average annual wage at a nonprofit was $59,455

• $26.98 median hourly wage (3rd quarter 2020)

• 13% of nonprofit jobs paid under $15.00 per hour

• Most nonprofit jobs – 70% – paid $20.00 or more per hour

Keep in mind that not all nonprofit organizations are employers – and those all-volunteer organizations would be overlooked if relying solely on employment data. It is also important to note that for this study, the OED includes all types of nonprofits, not just 501(c)(3)s.