Salaries: A Calm Approach
Few issues seem touchier than setting pastoral salaries. Boards often flounder trying to negotiate pay scales and raises amiably.
Life Center Church in Reno, Nevada, has found a way to avoid frustration by letting each staff member know what to expect.
"We took salary negotiations out of the board meetings and created a policy that would be handled administratively," says Pastor David Fritsche. "The policy personalizes the wages paid, but depersonalizes the process of setting the wages."
Life Center uses an annual survey of other churches to determine average salaries for pastors, secretaries, and custodians, but its unique idea is the set of adjustments that follow:
• Educational qualifications (ministerial staff only)
High school—average minus 10 percent
Bachelor's degrees from recognized school —average
Master's degree from recognized school—average plus 7.5 percent
Doctor's degree from recognized school—average plus 15 percent.
For each additional degree in a field that would improve ministry skills—an additional 2.5 percent.
• Experience qualifications outside Life Center
0-1 years—average minus 2 percent
2-5 years—average
More than 5 years—average plus 2 percent.
• Experience at Life Center
0-1 years—average minus 2 percent
2-5 years—average
6-10 years—average plus 3 percent
More than 10 years—average plus 6 percent.
"Now as inflation or deflation occurs, we are better stewards of both our finances and personnel,-y says Fritsche. "Our six staff members are happy, and so is the board of elders, because they no longer have to wrangle each year over salaries."
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