Pay differential for gender?

jusrme... interesting i hadn't heard of a WELS congregation doing this. But you will not that even the government is doing this (tax rebate).

Didn't it used to be that congregations were advised to provide their pastor with salary and benefits to match at least to the average of the congregation that he served?
I have been in congregations where added to the called workers' salary was so much per month per child -
4 children = $400 more per month, 6 children = $600 more per month, 0 children = $000 per month.
(An incentive to procreate?????)
BUT as the children grew older, at age 18 or 22, that part of the salary stopped

Well-thought out reply Rob.

The current set-up isn't great! At the last church I was at the staff-minister (of 2 years -not wels trained) was making more than the principal with 15 years experience. I was told that the staff-minister had more responsibilities? I was also told that the staff minister gave a great gift to the church by giving up his form job as an engineer (and high priced salary) to become a full-time called worker. Most of his responsibilities were social in nature, the church camping trip, the chili-cook off, fun day, etc....

John, setting salaries is something with which every congregation struggles. Nationally and locally the greatest piece (60% to 85%) of every church budget is payroll-related, so seemingly small adjustments in payroll policies can have huge impacts on congregation budgets. Every congregation would like to pay workers more but can't.

From where I sit, I see the national administration of WELS (i.e., Synodical Council) ahead of most congregations in modernizing archaic policies and practices in order to assure fair pay for workers consistent with Scripture and contemporary secular business ethics. Fair pay leads to happy workers. Nationally, official WELS pay policies pass the secular stink test; however, as you know, WELS pay policies apply only to certain workers, such as administrators in Milwaukee, faculty at Synod schools, and missionaries (home and foreign). As for the rest, the majority of workers in WELS, often they are paid according to well-intentioned but short-sighted and confused folklore and whims of church councils.

Locally in some congregations I see remnants of archaic payroll practices (which crept into churches in the 1800s and 1900s) continuing to haunt WELS today. These ghosts include base salary gender discrimination, housing allowance gender discrimination, health insurance gender discrimination, and trying to pay according to a worker's "need" based on marital status, number of children, or stage in life. These ghosts do not pass the secular stink test. Objective and fair assessments of a worker's "needs" are impossible, in part because congregations are not equipped to make such assessments.

The miserable old pay tables used by WELS (up until they were reworked a few years ago) reflected archaic needs-based pay policies. The old pay tables assumed that women were going to leave the ministry quickly and that all young workers could live on air, so pay in the first decade of service started low (much lower than today) and stayed low with very small annual step increases. Young workers and their families did not NEED money. During the second and third decade of service, annual pay steps increased in size and varied in size (up and down like a roller coaster) depending on your assumed stage of life and career at year 15, 20, and 25. Pay steps varied depending on whether you were assumed to be paying tuition for your children and skyrocketed in final years when you were supposed to panic saving for retirement.

If a pastor has 2 children and the principal has 6 children there is a greater need to help out the principal's family. This support could be done through other means than simply having a higher salary. It could mean a larger teacherage for the teacher.

Any formula we use to try to assess need will fail. In your example, although the principal has more children, if one of the pastor's children has extraordinary medical expenses, then the pastor needs a larger salary to pay health insurance co-pays. If the pastor's children are in high school, then they need separate bedrooms to study. If the pastor's wife operates a home-based business, then she needs an extra room for her extra income source. In your example, if the principal has 6 children, and the congregation commits to providing housing according to need, then the church council must stick its nose into the family matters of the principal to determine which children will bunk in singles, doubles, and triples, which ages may bunk together or separate according to boy/girl, whether teens may bunk in the basement or enclosed porch, whether or not pastor has a home office, and if the congregation will pay to move the pastor to a new home every few years as his situation changes.

I knew a mission congregation in a high-cost area that purchased a large parsonage because the pastor's wife insisted that she NEEDED a bedroom for each of her children when the children visited during prep school, MLC, and seminary holidays. Two years later the mission board closed the mission due to high costs (but made a handsome profit on the sale of the parsonage).

Needs-based pay is unworkable.

WELS laywoman wrote:I have heard from one person that since my husband is a second career student (9 years as an electrical engineer) that when he is called to a church, the congregation would take into account his years as an engineer and pay him more as a graduate pastor. I do not believe that at all. [emphasis added]

WL, what a blessing your husband will be wherever the Holy Spirit sends him! Thank you for your support of his career change.

I think your pessimism (that his longevity will be adjusted for his previous career) is realistic. You've heard the standard answer, that pay adjustments would be at the discretion of the calling body. I know that congregations who send calls to the Assignment Committee for new sem grads are required to pay "Synod code" salary, but I have not heard of Assignment Committee policy adjusting the pay of second-career pastors. Fortunately, the Synod pay tables that have been in force for the past few years are MUCH better than the old tables which held Year Zero workers down in the poverty and starvation zone for the first 10 years.

Synod pay tables are viewable at wels.net, but they can be difficult to interpret, and they're not binding on regular congregations, although many congregations use them because they can't develop a better pay table on their own, locally. Besides the base pay, there is a housing allowance linked to one index, and a geographic COLA dissected and linked to a different index.

There are two opposing views in WELS of career-change students. Some would call your husband's career change a blessing. Others would treat him with suspicion because he did not decide at age 14 to enter ministerial training. On one hand, the WELS Pastoral Institute trains second-career pastors for foreign mission fields. On the other hand, there is one paragraph in the Prep School Study Report (PSSC-2), an official study of the Synod, that associates second-career pastors in LCMS with false doctrine leaving readers wondering if that applies to WELS, too.

I've heard stories about teachers with years of experience as secular teachers getting Synodical Certification to teach in WELS schools and starting at year ZERO on the pay scale. Their secular time "didn't count".

I really don't have an opinion on this but I wanted to say that my husband is a middler at the Seminary this year so this topic is interesting to me. I have heard from one person that since my husband is a second career student (9 years as an electrical engineer) that when he is called to a church, the congregation would take into account his years as an engineer and pay him more as a graduate pastor. I do not believe that at all. It sure would be nice in this economy and with our son starting high school in 2010. I will be happy with a base salary whatever that is for a Sem grad (I'm guessing $30k), because it will be more than we make now as a two income family.

I am completely suggesting that a worker's family need should be a portion of the factor determining a called workers wage. This is scriptural based on paying the worker his due. Scripture is silent on missionaries and their family in the mission field, but Paul does direct the congregations to the fact that the "laborer is worth his wages."

If a pastor has 2 children and the principal has 6 children there is a greater need to help out the principal's family. This support could be done through other means than simply having a higher salary. It could mean a larger teacherage for the teacher. As you mention in another post scripture doesn't say anything about paying one worker a high salary simply based on experience.

john wrote:I wonder if it isn't right to take into account a called workers family needs. What about a pastor that has 2 children and a principal who has 5 children. Should the church provide for the worker and his needs?

John, are you suggesting that churches should pay different amounts to different workers depending on "needs"? If so, what are "needs," and who decides the worth of each "need"? Would paying according to "needs" be based on Scripture or tradition?

Scripture does not tell us to give old oxen more grain, so why do we (per Synod pay code) provide longevity step increases to called workers (0-30 years)? In the pay tables, longevity increases pay 50% -- much more than responsibility (column A, B, C, ... "double honor"). Is a pastor or teacher with 30 years experience significantly better or more deserving of higher pay than a pastor or teacher with 'only' 20 years experience?

Should a congregation pay housing allowance to a married woman?

I wonder if it isn't right to take into account a called workers family needs. What about a pastor that has 2 children and a principal who has 5 children. Should the church provide for the worker and his needs?

If a man and a woman are working side-by-side as Called Teachers, should the Calling Body (congregation or high school) pay the man more because he is a man?