Hiring: Compensation
Auxilio gets asked all the time about hiring. “Where can I find gifted, passionate staff?” “How much should I pay them?” “What benefits should I offer and how should I structure them?” We’ll take a look at these questions and more in a series of posts over the coming months on Human Resources called Recruiting, Hiring, and Retaining Great Employees. Let’s start with compensation.
Compensation
What is an appropriate salary range for a pastor, admin, or ministry staff person? How do you take in your local context to this question? One comparison we’ve found that works well is to look at the salary ranges of local school principals within your county. School districts often publish this information online so it is easily accessible. This will give you a good picture of a salary range appropriate for a pastor. You might also consider purchasing a Compensation Handbook for Church Staff. Some denominations or their regional subdivisions (like presbyteries) publish compensation guides too.
Consider basing your salary package on need -- balanced against modesty. Need is determined by housing costs in the target area. A 30% housing to salary ratio is often quoted as standard, but this varies especially in some cities, where housing might be upwards of 50% of gross income.
You might also want to ask “How does the financial lifestyle of the pastor fit with the average congregant?” to help you avoid extremes.
For setting compensation packages for program and support staff, we recommend looking at local nonprofits and other area churches. Consider setting a couple tiers of pay grades (categories like hourly workers, administrators/coordinators and those with higher functions like directors or finance managers). Be sure to review these categories and the salaries every 1-2 years to adjust accordingly.
Review compensation yearly to ensure reasonable equity between like positions, i.e. those serving similar functions or sharing similar responsibilities. Compensation must be equitable based on duties rather than title, though you should align titles as much as possible for jobs with similar duties. In churches, this is sometimes highlighted between male and female employees where duties, qualifications and areas of responsibility are very similar but titles may be different due to the church’s doctrine on women in ministry. Be particularly attentive to pay differentials for any other reason than duties plus length of service.
Keep in mind that benefits may be a significant aspect of the package potential employees are weighing. We’ll review benefits and options for structuring them in a coming post.
Can Auxilio Help Me with our HR Questions?
Yes! Auxilio’s clients receive access to the full arsenal of Auxilio’s knowledge and experience. We can help you through every step of the hiring process as needed. If you’ve got specific questions about hiring, retaining, developing or firing staff, let us know. We’d be glad to talk through those and shape coming posts around the questions our clients have.