When it comes to the salaries of the many lay people who help run the Catholic Church in the United States, the highest-paying lay positions tend to be administrative: lawyers, finance managers, and communications professionals. At the bottom of the pay scale are pastoral positions, such as vocations directors and ministers serving prisoners and students. As for priests, their salaries and other benefits, such as housing and car allowances, are on the rise.
These are the conclusions of a recently published report commissioned by the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators and the National Federation of Councils of Priests and led by the Center for Research Applied to the Apostolate at Georgetown University.
According to the report, a significant gap exists between the median salaries of administrative positions and pastoral positions. The highest salaries in Catholic archdioceses and dioceses among lay employees are those of lawyers, with a median salary of $141,091, while the lowest paid position for lay workers is that of director of vocations, whose median salary is $26,348. (Although this salary information is intended for lay employees, the role of vocation director is often filled by a priest.)
According to the report, a significant gap exists between the median salaries of administrative positions and pastoral positions.
Mary Santi, chancellor and executive director of human resources for the Archdiocese of Seattle, said it’s important to note that lay employees in administrative positions often see their work as a form of ministry.
“People who work as finance officers or human resources directors, we see ourselves as working in ministry, it’s just a different form of ministry than someone who works as a director of religious education for a diocese “, she said. America.
There are some regional differences regarding the highest paying positions in Catholic diocesan offices. In the Midwest, for example, property managers top the list, with a median salary of $200,000. Meanwhile, in the South, lawyers are not among the five highest-paying positions, but a cemetery manager (a median salary of $104,449) just like a construction manager, with a median annual salary of $94 $363. (Cemeteries can be important sources of income for archdioceses and dioceses, and construction is on the rise as the South sees a boom in the number of new Catholics.)
As for the clergy, new Catholic priests, which include bishops, can expect a salary of around $20,000, with median salaries varying slightly by geography. The highest median salary for a new priest is in the Midwest, at $29,856, while the lowest median salary, $24,960, is in the Central region, which stretches from Minnesota to Texas. The maximum salary for priests ranges from $29,744 in the West region to $44,417 in the Midwest.
Diocesan priests do not take a vow of poverty and according to canon law they should be paid enough to “support their living” as well as donate to charitable causes.
Michal Kramarek, researcher at CARA, underlined on the organization’s blog this salary is only part of the overall remuneration of a priest.
The national median total taxable income for priests is $45,593.
“The salary is the first, and often the most important, component of the taxable income of the diocesan priest,” he writes. “The second component, other taxable cash income, is approximately 20 cents of every dollar of priest income and includes, for example, a housing and board allowance as well as Mass allowances, stole fees withheld and premiums.”
The national median total taxable income for priests is $45,593, according to the report, less than half the median salary of men in the United States with a similar level of education. Mr. Kramarek noted that the median salary of American priests has increased by about 9% since 1996.
In comparison, the average salary for full-time Episcopal priests is $75,355 a year, according to a 2015 study. report by the Church Pension Group. This includes non-salary compensation such as payment of children’s school fees.
(Interestingly, the gender pay gap among Episcopal clergy is significant: According to the same report, male clergy received $80,000 in compensation per year, while female clergy received $68,718. There is, of course, no gender pay gap when it comes to Roman Catholic clergy.)
According to a 2013 investigation per the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the average salary for Lutheran clergy ranged from $45,666 to $79,433.
Reverend Tony Cutcher, President of the NFPC, said America that he hopes the report “invites church finance administrators to put faces to the numbers they are working on, that they see that if we are truly a eucharistic church, then the very thing that gives us the ‘Eucharist, priests, must be taken care of in a very special way.
Fr Cutcher said he was surprised to find that priests generally do not receive any additional pay when assigned to lead multiple parishes, a scenario that is becoming more common as dioceses struggle with priest shortages.
“There is virtually no difference in salary between being a pastor of one parish or five parishes,” he said. “There was no compensation for the extra stress or the extra time these things take.”
“We have no idea how each priest uses his salary. Even the best survey cannot capture individual stories and the different ways priests use their resources.
However there are exceptions, nearly all Catholic priests in the United States are single and have no dependent family, which Fr. Cutcher says leads many to believe that the salaries and benefits priests receive are generous. He more or less shares this view, but notes that the survey does not address how priests spend their resources. He said that many priests care for elderly parents or disabled siblings, for example, and others give part of their income to charity.
“We have no idea how priests use their salaries,” he said. “Even the best survey can’t capture individual stories and the different ways priests use their resources.”
But AJ Boyd, theologian and lay minister based in Rome, argued on his blog that benefits for priests, such as heavily subsidized seminary education, begin long before they lead parishes. Additionally, there are other benefits not available to lay employees.
“There is no doubt that the priest in such a scenario is ‘wealthier’ – enjoying a higher standard of living, a nicer home, with greater stability and less stress to make ends meet. “, he wrote.
The report is available for purchase of NACPA and it includes detailed data on various positions in the archdioceses and dioceses, as well as the benefits granted to lay and ordained employees. Data is self-reported by a relatively small number of dioceses that responded to a CARA survey
Regina Haney, executive director of NACPA, said America that the report, titled “Diocesan National Survey: Salary and Benefits for Priests and Lay Staff, 2017,” was commissioned to help “diocesan leaders provide a more just and equitable work environment for priests and lay staff . This data is also invaluable in recruiting and retaining great employees in our competitive workplace. »
Kerry Robinson, founding executive director of the Leaders’ Roundtablewhich promotes best business practices in the church, said America that to attract and retain talent, the church must strengthen its efforts in “talent identification, recruitment, job descriptions, compensation, performance development and promotion”.
“The church cannot survive without lay personnel,” she said. “Remuneration is not the only barometer, of course, but it is a reflection of how we value the laity and the particular roles the laity fill in the church.”
Colleen Dulle, a America O’Hare Fellow, contributed to this report.
