What is an appropriate salary?

Question:
I have been a pastor of a church plant for 9 years (in ministry for 25 years) and want to add another staff member. Presently I take home $ 2,700.00 each month which only took effect August 2008 and the church takes care of my health insurance and contributes a small amount for my retirement. Our overall church expenses are $12,000/month and offerings are approx. $19,000/month. What is an appropriate salary for me and for a new associate pastor?

Answer:
I am not aware of a specific salary scale or survey in our denomination (Foursquare). They do suggest that churches keep total personnel costs below 40% of our titheable income. Total personnel costs include salary, housing, taxes, and all other benefits.

Typically pay scales vary more by congregational size, annual budget and/or region of the country. I can recommend two possible resources:
1. Compensation Handbook for Church Staff put out by Church Law & Tax Report (Richard Hammar & James Cobble).
2. The one I prefer is a resource of NACBA (National Association of Church Business Administrators). It is online at www.ministrypay.com. I like that you can drill down to find data for your size church…in your area of the county. If you are willing to participate you can actually save $65 on the survey.

One last thought…At Grace Covenant our preference is to not have the highest paid pastors nor the lowest paid pastors for each position. So we worked on a method that would allow us to come back to the MinistryPay survey every two years and re-populate our salary ranges. It keeps us current without having to rework our rationale each time.