LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — The average salary and housing for full-time Baptist pastors is $46,505, according to a national compensation study. That is a jump of 6.7 percent from a similar study conducted two years ago.
The average total pay package, including insurance and annuity benefits, is $56,236 nationally — an increase of 7.6 percent over the previous study. The study includes more than 20,000 participants from 8,600 Southern Baptist churches in all 50 states.
The average salary-and-housing packages for full-time pastors range from $34,397 in Montana to $63,818 in the District of Columbia. Full-time pastors in the Baptist General Convention of Texas rank second at $56,581.
“The joint study provides a much larger database so churches can compare compensation to churches more like their own,” said Don Spencer, director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention's annuity department, who has been compiling a biennial compensation study for Kentucky Baptist churches since 1986. The Southern Baptist Annuity Board (renamed GuideStone Financial Resources last week) also helped facilitate the study.
“Our hope is that churches will use this information to evaluate their compensation arrangements for current and future staff,” explained Bob Henry, head of GuideStone's church retirement marketing department.
In addition to compensation for full-time pastors, the study provides compensation information about bivocational pastors and full-time and bivocational church staff ministers as well as office personnel and custodians.
“One of the values of this is it allows a church to not make compensation decisions in a vacuum,” Henry said. “It helps churches get a more global view of what is happening in the area of compensation for pastors and church staff members.”
Bivocational pastors' salary and housing average $14,788 nationally, an increase of 6.5 percent since 2002. Their average total pay package is $16,340, a gain of 8.4 percent in the past two years.
Among full-time church staff ministers, the average salary and housing is $44,730 nationally and the total pay package averages $54,184. Among bivocational church staff ministers, average salary and housing is $10,725 and the total pay package averages $11,576.
Citing other findings in the study, Spencer said he is pleased that ministers' compensation has outpaced inflation in recent years. He said the 6.7 percent increase in full-time pastors' average compensation since 2002 compares to a 4.3 percent inflation rate. Since 1996, full-time pastors' average compensation has jumped 40.4 percent, doubling the inflation rate of 20.2 percent.
“The level of increased compensation is significant since ministers traditionally have been underpaid when compared to secular positions requiring similar background and responsibilities,” he said. “Little by little, compensation for church staff is improving.”
Churches and individuals can access the full study and compile customized compensation reports online through the “2004 Compensation Study” link at www.absbc.org.
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