Job-seekers lowball salary asks at “altruistic” companies

There’s something called social-impact framing in marketing. It’s when a company or organization promotes itself as being altruistic, benefiting society, “doing good while doing well” — that sort of thing. 

A lot of job-seekers these days want to work for these kinds of employers. But it turns out, they may end up with lower paychecks if they do.

Here are some common keywords in job postings these days: Mission, impact, making the world a better place.

Insiya Hussain is a professor of management at UT Austin. She said this kind of “we-benefit-humanity” messaging makes prospective employees 30% less likely to negotiate starting salary. 

“There’s a sort-of widespread cultural norm that money might taint attempts to do good, making employees feel like it would be crass or greedy or inappropriate to ask for higher pay,” she said.

Annette Farrell knows this well. She’s a para-educator for autistic students in Portland, Oregon, making $23 an hour. 

“I worked in nonprofits when I was younger, and I didn’t feel empowered to ask for a raise,” she said.

And it’s not just altruistic nonprofits. Hussain’s research finds that employees are just as hesitant to ask for higher pay from for-profit employers that promote their ‘higher purpose.’