On pastrami and the business of PLOS

Re:On pastrami and the business of PLOS by thenewwazoo on Monday March 28, 2016 @01:40AM (#11372898)

I'm not sure I agree with Kern's implication that a not-for-profit company should be eating the figurative Ramen and running on shoestring budgets. His description of their assets reminds me of something that's very common, very valuable, and very useful in the NPO world: endowments. So they've got capital? Great! The more they make off their investments, the less they must charge in order to pay for opex (they're light on capex partly because of gratis support they get from similarly-minded companies).

I'm also not sure I agree that under $400k/yr is "big salaries". Especially in a company that can't offer stock, doesn't offer big bonuses, etc. I was offered a job there a couple of years ago, and spent some time talking to the CTO. She was remarkably candid with me about PLoS' financials and their plan for growth (which, I note, they've executed on marvellously). I have never, ever, ever been more impressed by an executive. If the rest of the executives are of the same calibre as Ms. Rayhill, they deserve every red cent.

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Re:On pastrami and the business of PLOS by dsr_ on Monday March 28, 2016 @06:57AM (#11373570)

> I'm also not sure I agree that under $400k/yr is "big salaries".

It is. Your perspective is warped.

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Re:On pastrami and the business of PLOS by beachstartup on Monday March 28, 2016 @09:11AM (#11374018)

compared to what? in this world, there are lots of executives who get paid literally millions of dollars to do nothing at best, or actively destroy value at worst.

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Re:On pastrami and the business of PLOS by vonmoltke on Monday March 28, 2016 @10:55AM (#11374592)

These people are a tiny minority at the tail of the income distribution. Using them as a metric is the statistical definition of the warped perspective.

Having a six-figure household income at all puts you in the top 15% in the US. Having a $400k salary puts you very close to the top 1%. I would say anyone making enough to put them, by themselves, in the top 15% is arguably making a "big salary". The Valley has really warped the perception within this industry in particular and the US in general as to what "normal" money is.

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Re:On pastrami and the business of PLOS by beachstartup on Monday March 28, 2016 @01:39PM (#11375806)

we're talking executive salaries here, not individual contributors or 'normal' i.e. median income for people at the lowest pay scales of an organization.

400k is a good executive salary. i guess you could call it 'big' but it doesn't strike me as something 'too high' or as an indicator of something nefarious going on. it's in line with very senior executive pay at the c-level or a very senior VP/MD. someone like that probably oversees up to 8 or 9 figures of business.

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Re:On pastrami and the business of PLOS by thenewwazoo on Monday March 28, 2016 @03:42PM (#11376771)

Right, but we're not talking about whether a median employee's salary is big in a median market. We're talking about executive comp in the SFBA. I'd estimate the CEO of PLoS is making ~2.5x what the average employee makes, which is a completely reasonable multiple for executives that are reliably hitting their goals and doing good work. You may think comp in the SFBA is warped, but I don't think it's fair to dismiss context out of hand.

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Re:On pastrami and the business of PLOS by vonmoltke on Monday March 28, 2016 @04:04PM (#11376937)

No, we're talking about total executive comp at a non-profit. If compensation in the SFBA is warped relative to the rest of the US it is fair to ask why a non-profit is based there and whether the salaries they have to pay to stay are justified.

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Re:On pastrami and the business of PLOS by dekhn on Monday March 28, 2016 @11:47AM (#11374938)

Nope, $400K is typical executive compensation in major US cities.

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Re:On pastrami and the business of PLOS by vonmoltke on Monday March 28, 2016 @12:25PM (#11375205)

I just pulled a few 990s for professional engineering societies. Except for their CEO/ED and one or two key regional managers, they make far less than $400k/year. That said, I looked at PLOS's 990 and saw numbers that were a) much smaller than I expected based on the $400k comment and b) in line with but slightly higher than what I saw from, say, the Society or Petroleum Engineers or Society of Automotive Engineers.

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Re:On pastrami and the business of PLOS by dekhn on Monday March 28, 2016 @01:30PM (#11375726)

Make sure you restrict to major cities. That affects comp. Also I suspect those forms show base pay not total comp which is typically far higher.

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Re:On pastrami and the business of PLOS by vonmoltke on Monday March 28, 2016 @04:00PM (#11376914)

Not sure about the legal reporting requirements, but since my wife works at one of them I can tell you first-hand that they don't get much on top of their base salary. Non-profits are 80%+ salary compensation, even at the highest levels.

Also, engineering societies generally are based in major cities.

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Re:On pastrami and the business of PLOS by KKKKkkkk1 on Monday March 28, 2016 @11:08AM (#11374673)

My latest paper was in Springer. Part of their operation is running from India. Why can't PLOS run from India and operate on a shoestring budget?

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Re:On pastrami and the business of PLOS by nefitty on Monday March 28, 2016 @06:12AM (#11373467)

Why didn't you take the job?

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Re:On pastrami and the business of PLOS by thenewwazoo on Monday March 28, 2016 @03:45PM (#11376797)

Ironically, because the pay wasn't enough to compete with other offers in the SFBA. I do very much regret not taking the job, but the cost (actual bottom-line cost) was too high to absorb.

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