Were lots of DC-area professionals overpaid?

[Anonymous]

One takeaway from the article is the older ones are struggling to find new jobs while the younger ones have transitioned into other sectors.

While this isn’t surprising, it is both sad and scary (as a white collar professional in my 50s).

I’m trying to find a way to ensure my spouse and I can retire early just in case the universe throws us a curveball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A nonprofit? Wasn't USAID an agency? What am I missing?

OP are you ok? USAID isn't a nonprofit.

What was she doing for $272K a year that someone else couldn't do for say $120K or even $100K?

I do belive there are a ton of people being way overpaid in large cities like DC.

Do you live in DC? Do you have any idea the COL here? 100k would be criminal exploitation for an educated, experienced employee.

I made $157k in 2025 as a DOJ lawyer.

How many years in?

I mean, legal aid lawyers make far less, and we are talking about nonprofit salaries (nonprofits funded by federal contracts, not government jobs).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A nonprofit? Wasn't USAID an agency? What am I missing?

OP are you ok? USAID isn't a nonprofit.

What was she doing for $272K a year that someone else couldn't do for say $120K or even $100K?

I do belive there are a ton of people being way overpaid in large cities like DC.

Do you live in DC? Do you have any idea the COL here? 100k would be criminal exploitation for an educated, experienced employee.

I made $157k in 2025 as a DOJ lawyer.

Similar here. In 2021, I was a finreg attorney with 20 years of experience making $170K. I left for the private sector and more than doubled my salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yes thats an insane amount to be paid for usaid

why can't she retire? Didn't she have the good gov benefits?

SHE WORKS AT A NONPROFIT. Maybe the pay is high, but the argument is that by having competitive pay you can attract talent that can put the multi-million dollar budget to its most effective use. Paying below market wages for CEOs, etc, the business side of the nonprofit will suffer.

Let’s be honest, most doctors pay is largely funded by the government by Medicaid, Medicare, tax deductions for insurance, etc and no one complains about their high salaries.

[Anonymous]

Isn’t Ukraine looking for bodies for the front line?

Lot of DC people are super Ukraine simps so that’s always an option, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A nonprofit? Wasn't USAID an agency? What am I missing?

OP are you ok? USAID isn't a nonprofit.

What was she doing for $272K a year that someone else couldn't do for say $120K or even $100K?

I do belive there are a ton of people being way overpaid in large cities like DC.

Do you live in DC? Do you have any idea the COL here? 100k would be criminal exploitation for an educated, experienced employee.

I made $157k in 2025 as a DOJ lawyer.

How many years in?

I mean, legal aid lawyers make far less, and we are talking about nonprofit salaries (nonprofits funded by federal contracts, not government jobs).

10 years of experience

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yes thats an insane amount to be paid for usaid

why can't she retire? Didn't she have the good gov benefits?

SHE WORKS AT A NONPROFIT. Maybe the pay is high, but the argument is that by having competitive pay you can attract talent that can put the multi-million dollar budget to its most effective use. Paying below market wages for CEOs, etc, the business side of the nonprofit will suffer.

Let’s be honest, most doctors pay is largely funded by the government by Medicaid, Medicare, tax deductions for insurance, etc and no one complains about their high salaries.

Everyone complains about doctor salaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A nonprofit? Wasn't USAID an agency? What am I missing?

OP are you ok? USAID isn't a nonprofit.

What was she doing for $272K a year that someone else couldn't do for say $120K or even $100K?

I do belive there are a ton of people being way overpaid in large cities like DC.

Do you live in DC? Do you have any idea the COL here? 100k would be criminal exploitation for an educated, experienced employee.

Based on what? Credentialism alone shouldn’t guarantee you a high paying job. What do you DO that commands a high salary? If you are fungible or easily replaceable for cheaper, tough luck.

$100k would get you someone with four years of experience here. You seem completely unaware of the job market here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yes thats an insane amount to be paid for usaid

why can't she retire? Didn't she have the good gov benefits?

SHE WORKS AT A NONPROFIT. Maybe the pay is high, but the argument is that by having competitive pay you can attract talent that can put the multi-million dollar budget to its most effective use. Paying below market wages for CEOs, etc, the business side of the nonprofit will suffer.

Let’s be honest, most doctors pay is largely funded by the government by Medicaid, Medicare, tax deductions for insurance, etc and no one complains about their high salaries.

Everyone complains about doctor salaries.

Some do, but because doctor training is so long and arduous, a lot of people are like "oh well, someone has to do it." Lawyers and other white collar professionals do not spend four years in grad school plus another 3 to 8 years as residents and fellows (making not very much money while also having to pay student loans if they have them). By the time someone is actually eligible to make a high doctor salary, they have "suffered" in a way that most well-paid professionals have not, and that makes people feel a bit more understanding. Also not all doctors make very high salaries -- family doctors, pediatricians, and internists are much lower paid than surgical specialities, which means the doctors people interact with most often tend not to be super highly paid, and when a person encounters a very high paid doctor, it's like "well yeah if you are going to be cutting people open and sewing them back together and saving lives for a living, maybe yes we should pay you a lot".

So when you hear a doctor is making 300k, you might grumble a bit about how this is why healthcare is so expensive. But more likely you are thinking, "I hope this cardiologist is good."

Whereas if you encounter someone working for a non-profit, with maybe a masters degree and some experience but nothing similar to the kind of training doctors go through, making over 250k, it's like "wtf, how does one get that sweet gig?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A nonprofit? Wasn't USAID an agency? What am I missing?

OP are you ok? USAID isn't a nonprofit.

What was she doing for $272K a year that someone else couldn't do for say $120K or even $100K?

I do belive there are a ton of people being way overpaid in large cities like DC.

Do you live in DC? Do you have any idea the COL here? 100k would be criminal exploitation for an educated, experienced employee.

If you really believe this is criminal exploitation, check out the pay scales for the public school districts in this area. In most cases, it takes more than 15 years and a master's degree to reach 100k. There is a lot of privilege on this site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A nonprofit? Wasn't USAID an agency? What am I missing?

OP are you ok? USAID isn't a nonprofit.

What was she doing for $272K a year that someone else couldn't do for say $120K or even $100K?

I do belive there are a ton of people being way overpaid in large cities like DC.

Do you live in DC? Do you have any idea the COL here? 100k would be criminal exploitation for an educated, experienced employee.

Based on what? Credentialism alone shouldn’t guarantee you a high paying job. What do you DO that commands a high salary? If you are fungible or easily replaceable for cheaper, tough luck.

$100k would get you someone with four years of experience here. You seem completely unaware of the job market here.

You are still focused on credentialism and rubrics rather than the value of what she actually DOES. You've been lost in the sauce for too long, you can't even see it. The whole premise of the thread is asking whether her skillset and was she DOES was actually worth it. Nobody is entitled to a high salary just because they went to some nice-sounding school and racked up years of service doing not much of anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A nonprofit? Wasn't USAID an agency? What am I missing?

OP are you ok? USAID isn't a nonprofit.

What was she doing for $272K a year that someone else couldn't do for say $120K or even $100K?

I do belive there are a ton of people being way overpaid in large cities like DC.

Do you live in DC? Do you have any idea the COL here? 100k would be criminal exploitation for an educated, experienced employee.

Based on what? Credentialism alone shouldn’t guarantee you a high paying job. What do you DO that commands a high salary? If you are fungible or easily replaceable for cheaper, tough luck.

$100k would get you someone with four years of experience here. You seem completely unaware of the job market here.

You are still focused on credentialism and rubrics rather than the value of what she actually DOES. You've been lost in the sauce for too long, you can't even see it. The whole premise of the thread is asking whether her skillset and was she DOES was actually worth it. Nobody is entitled to a high salary just because they went to some nice-sounding school and racked up years of service doing not much of anything.

No, I’m actually not “lost in the sauce,” I’m just aware that you can’t find someone to do senior-level nonprofit work in DC for $100k, which is laughable. Senior roles in nonprofits have significant responsibilities that take time and experience to be able to do. You can’t find someone that can do that for $100k. It’s not hypothetical. I know nonprofits here. No one is getting someone with the relevant skills and experience to manage large budgets and teams for $100k.

Again, you clearly don’t live here so not sure why you are commenting on what the job market is like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A nonprofit? Wasn't USAID an agency? What am I missing?

OP are you ok? USAID isn't a nonprofit.

What was she doing for $272K a year that someone else couldn't do for say $120K or even $100K?

I do belive there are a ton of people being way overpaid in large cities like DC.

Do you live in DC? Do you have any idea the COL here? 100k would be criminal exploitation for an educated, experienced employee.

Based on what? Credentialism alone shouldn’t guarantee you a high paying job. What do you DO that commands a high salary? If you are fungible or easily replaceable for cheaper, tough luck.

$100k would get you someone with four years of experience here. You seem completely unaware of the job market here.

You are still focused on credentialism and rubrics rather than the value of what she actually DOES. You've been lost in the sauce for too long, you can't even see it. The whole premise of the thread is asking whether her skillset and was she DOES was actually worth it. Nobody is entitled to a high salary just because they went to some nice-sounding school and racked up years of service doing not much of anything.

No, I’m actually not “lost in the sauce,” I’m just aware that you can’t find someone to do senior-level nonprofit work in DC for $100k, which is laughable. Senior roles in nonprofits have significant responsibilities that take time and experience to be able to do. You can’t find someone that can do that for $100k. It’s not hypothetical. I know nonprofits here. No one is getting someone with the relevant skills and experience to manage large budgets and teams for $100k.

Again, you clearly don’t live here so not sure why you are commenting on what the job market is like.

You are lost in the sauce and still talking about an "job market" based on credentialism, cronyism and gatekeeping within a circumscribed, non-transferrable bubble. I know this world well and a lot of the senior people are absolutely useless, but they hid out in government, NGOs or contractors. It was turtles all the way down; the work isn't hard. The issue now is the rug has been pulled out from under that. What you are calling "skill" is really only germane to a niche that has been decimated and not really transferrable. It would appear that "program management" "strategic planning" and "budgeting" aren't as valuable as those of you lost in the sauce thought they were.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No.

It's "a clear indication" that the market changes.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A nonprofit? Wasn't USAID an agency? What am I missing?

OP are you ok? USAID isn't a nonprofit.

What was she doing for $272K a year that someone else couldn't do for say $120K or even $100K?

I do belive there are a ton of people being way overpaid in large cities like DC.

Do you live in DC? Do you have any idea the COL here? 100k would be criminal exploitation for an educated, experienced employee.

Based on what? Credentialism alone shouldn’t guarantee you a high paying job. What do you DO that commands a high salary? If you are fungible or easily replaceable for cheaper, tough luck.

$100k would get you someone with four years of experience here. You seem completely unaware of the job market here.

You are still focused on credentialism and rubrics rather than the value of what she actually DOES. You've been lost in the sauce for too long, you can't even see it. The whole premise of the thread is asking whether her skillset and was she DOES was actually worth it. Nobody is entitled to a high salary just because they went to some nice-sounding school and racked up years of service doing not much of anything.

No, I’m actually not “lost in the sauce,” I’m just aware that you can’t find someone to do senior-level nonprofit work in DC for $100k, which is laughable. Senior roles in nonprofits have significant responsibilities that take time and experience to be able to do. You can’t find someone that can do that for $100k. It’s not hypothetical. I know nonprofits here. No one is getting someone with the relevant skills and experience to manage large budgets and teams for $100k.

Again, you clearly don’t live here so not sure why you are commenting on what the job market is like.

You are lost in the sauce and still talking about an "job market" based on credentialism, cronyism and gatekeeping within a circumscribed, non-transferrable bubble. I know this world well and a lot of the senior people are absolutely useless, but they hid out in government, NGOs or contractors. It was turtles all the way down; the work isn't hard. The issue now is the rug has been pulled out from under that. What you are calling "skill" is really only germane to a niche that has been decimated and not really transferrable. It would appear that "program management" "strategic planning" and "budgeting" aren't as valuable as those of you lost in the sauce thought they were.

I haven’t talked about any of those things. You sound nuts.

I mentioned experience. It’s weird you think this isn’t relevant, because it is a factor in filling senior jobs not only in government or nonprofits but in the for-profit sector too.

Job market doesn’t need your quotations. It’s a real thing and people move between sectors here, and pay is high. It is relevant and you aren’t getting anyone that can do these senior roles competently for $100k. I get that you think they are useless but you’ve also proven you don’t have any experience here.

Frankly, based on your comments and ignorance I doubt you are in a professional services job at all.