The ME Association: We are seeking a research correspondent to join our team!

[Dolphin]

I don't think the exact salary somebody is paid in an ME charity is likely to make much difference to the general employment market.

What does happen is the more that is spent on somebody's wages, the less there is to spend on other activities.

 

[Dolphin]

One area I noticed affected by less of a spirit of voluntarism is recruitment for research. I have highlighted a lot of opportunities over the years in various countries: research in the US costs a lot more because they have to offer more to participants (meaning either sample sizes are smaller than they otherwise have been and/or fewer studies get funded for the same amount of money).

Also I have noticed quite a number of people from the US saying the researchers need to offer more before they would take part even when what they were offering seemed very generous to me.

I think people in the US are paid to donate blood which doesn’t happen in my country anyway.

 

[Dolphin]

People with ME have an incentive to work for less than the going rate or often for free as the cause can help them personally which doesn’t generally apply to healthy people.

I'm just doing some voluntary work for the charity I'm involved with and I noticed that some people who volunteer their time also donate to the charity. One could almost say they are paid negatively.