Comment by alephnerd

The same as any other organization - they would not be able to attract or afford the right talent.

Also, these are not Silicon Valley numbers. Similar roles as those listed would pay 1.5-2x in the private sector here in the Bay.

Even Wikipedia Foundation's European salaries [0] are well above market rate in the geos listed (Italy, Germany) [1][2].

> They are not doing advanced R&D, or product dev that would justify big numbers or a very specific set of skills

Wikimedia's assets are some of the most heavily visited sites globally and are often a target for attacks (both nation state and independently led).

It takes a nontrivial amount of effort to maintain a platform like Wikimedia's.

[0] - https://www.levels.fyi/companies/wikimedia-foundation/salari...

[1] - https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/italy

[2] - https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/germany