The worker's wages
For some reason the question of clergy compensation - especially the motivation behind such compensation - has been floating in my head for the last few days (and let me say at the outset that I am quite happy with the compensation provided by my current congregation, this is just an intellectual wandering, not a complaint).
With most church budgets being occupied 50-70% by pastoral compensation, it is no shocker that the pastor's pay (and attending costs) are subject to more discussion every year than any other single element of the budget. Indeed, I would argue that the pastor's compensation is the most consistently contentious issue in church life.
Part of the reason, I think, is that we have different understandings of what should be the determinative factor when setting pastoral compensation. In fact, there is a whole list of issues that could be, are, or should be factors in determining such compensation (to name a few):
- Amount of education
- Amount of ordained experience
- Quality of ministry
- Quantity of ministry
- Measurable results of ministry
- Amount of experience prior to ordination
- Number of additional staff supervised
- Size of the congregational budget (i.e., what can we afford)
- Amount paid other professionals in the area
- Regional cost of living
The readers of this blog are, as I count it, pretty well split between clergy and laity. So what say you? What should be the determining factor(s)? And what, in our churches, usually is the deteremining factor(s) when it comes to pastoral salary?
5 comments:
Yes, this is always a stickler. As my son says, "how can ___ take a job with such low pay after all those years of school?" In this case, he is referring to my daughter who is fortunate to have a loan for just one year of seminary to pay off, but her husband is also an sem grad with more years to pay off and he also has a church related job, so you know the story on that.
My husband wanted to bring up the pastor's compensation at our annual meeting. Of course, he should have been on the budget committee if he really wanted to do this. He wanted it to be higher. Our pastor's salary is about what a person might get coming right out of college with no experience, if he/she is lucky. Of course, the benefit package for the pastor is MUCH higher than many people get, and there is a parsonage which is fairly decent, considering our area. [There are good tax reasons to structure things this way.]
My husband talked to the council president before the annual meeting and he was urged not to rock the boat on this issue, the reason being that our pastor was very interested in looking for money to raise the salaries of the other employees of the church. They get no benefits, I believe, since they are part time. They had recently made our youth/education person 3/4 time rather than 1/2 time. She has a master's degree, as well.
So it goes.
Everybody is feeling pinched these days, except corporate bosses that get fired. One example is a meat packing plant in our state that has been under scrutiny for possibly hiring illegal workers. A news report said that 12 years ago the wages were in the range of $18/hour and now the wages are $8/hour. My sister, in a neighboring state, says that in her area, $8/hour is considered really good, hence she loves Wal-Mart, which she says pays $12/hour. In our area, if you want a job cleaning a resort on a Saturday, you can make $10 - $18/hour, and good independent house cleaners earn at least $13/hour.
Put our church staff in this picture and their wages look poor. I don't think we could replace them with anyone who would work for their wages.
I should have mentioned that our pastor is within synod guidelines. Thank goodness for those, or pastors would still be paid minimum wage. a
p.s., your pastor probably should be paid more, but she is smart to look at the salaries of the other staff. they will be very loyal... and they deserve to be treated justly as well.
also, I do think the benefits clergy get are important.
PS, I think your husband was right to bite his tongue on that one. And it is a wonderful example of the congregational budget being the determinative factor in conversations about compensation.
Synod guidelines are a wonderful benefit to being in a wider church body (as opposed to a congregational polity). Many studies have shown that congregations in a wider church body such as ours (whether organized by synods, districts, or diocese) tend to be better off than those who aren't - precisely because of the pressure of guidelines for recommended minimum compensation. Of course, there are still those congregations who do not pay within the guidelines - but I really think that they are few and far between for the most part.
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