How to Set Compensation
One of the issues that came out of the Mars Hill publicity was the setting of compensation in the church. Questions were asked about Mark Driscoll’s salary and whether it was excessive.
One way of establishing fair compensation is to look at the local school teachers, school administrators, police officers or police administration. As an example, the information below is from Orange County, California. These are some pretty nice salaries, plus great benefits and pensions (which alone is 25-34% of salary).
Do a Google search for your area and learn what your school teachers and officials are making. It can help form a great compensation guide for your church.
- Fullerton United School District
- Fullerton Police Department
- City of Fullerton
- Orange County School Superintendents
More About Compensation
- In the XPastor course on Staffing, there are three classes on Compensation.
- See this Salary Grid Sample for one department.
- Check out the Leadership Network Large Church Salary Report
- The much-anticipated inside look at large church finances (compensation, staffing, budget) is now available for free download here. Titled Leadership Network/Vanderbloemen 2014 Large Church Salary Report: An Executive Summary of Research Trends in Compensation and Staffing, this fresh research by Warren Bird, Ph.D., summarizes trends from 727 large churches in the U.S. and Canada. It addresses questions such as:
- What percent of the church budget goes to staffing costs?
- What’s the pay difference between the senior pastor and the second-highest-paid person?
- How have large church salaries increased/decreased in recent years?
- How many paid staff-per-attender do large churches have?
- Does being multisite lead to higher salaries?
Information is also provided on how your church can obtain a custom compensation analysis, tailored to your church’s size, geography and other circumstances.