For church administrators and personnel committees
Church compensation survey and church staff salary survey prices compared
A church compensation survey costs nothing to $3,285. The Southern Baptist study is free to any church, ChurchSalary runs $135 to $699 a year by staff count, and the large church report from Church Compensation Services is $795 if you took part and $2,385 if you did not. Most churches under 40 staff need one free source and one paid one, for well under $500 a year.
Hiring a bookkeeper, an office manager or a facilities lead this month? Those are the roles church surveys cover least well. Price one on the right and get a band and a range you can put in the posting.
- P25
- $0
- P50 ยท Median
- $0
- P75
- $0
Suggested posted range
Built from public U.S. BLS OES wage data (May 2025 release), adjusted for market, seniority and company stage by the multipliers published in our methodology.
Get bands for your whole team
Get startedPublished prices from each publisher
Taking part in the survey is worth more than any discount code
Each bar runs from the cheapest published route (member, participant, smallest staff tier) to the most expensive one. A lone marigold line at the left edge means the results are free. Scale $0 to $3,300.
SBC Church Compensation Study (Lifeway, GuideStone)
Free results and lookup tool, every two years
MinistryPay (The Church Network)
Free for participating members, $249 for non-members per the FAQ
ChurchSalary membership
$135 for 9 staff up to $699 for unlimited, per year
Church Compensation Services benefits report
Participant $199, non-participant $597
Church Compensation Report 2026
Participant $795, non-participant $2,385
Multi-site Church Compensation Report 2026
Participant $1,095, non-participant $3,285
Sources are the publisher product pages, membership pages and FAQs listed in the table below.
Which church salary survey a church should actually use
Match the survey to your size first. Under 1,000 weekly attendees, start with the free Southern Baptist study (it is usable by any church, not only Baptist ones) and add ChurchSalary at the tier that fits your staff count. Above 1,000, the Church Compensation Report is the only source built for your peer group, and it costs a third as much if you submit data.
Church surveys are strong where secular data is weak: senior and associate pastors, worship leaders, student and children's ministers, executive pastors. They are thinner for the jobs a church shares with every other employer in town, like the bookkeeper, the office manager and the custodian. Those people compare their pay with the insurance office and the school district, not with other churches, and that is where a church loses staff.
The second decision is what the survey counts. A pastor with a $48,000 salary and an $18,000 housing allowance is paid $66,000 in survey terms, yet a committee reading only the W-2 compares $48,000 with the survey figure. Section 03 shows how each source builds its number, which matters more than which one you buy.
Quick guide
- Under 10 staff
- SBC study plus ChurchSalary $135
- 10 to 36 staff
- ChurchSalary $199 or $359
- The Church Network member
- MinistryPay, enter data, free
- 1,000+ attendance
- Church Compensation Report
- Office and finance roles
- Local market data
Church salary survey prices and coverage by publisher
Every price below is quoted from the publisher's own product page, membership page or FAQ. Where a publisher prints no price, the table says so. The guidance books at the bottom are not surveys, but committees often buy them in the same order.
| Survey | Published price | Covers | Sample | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Baptist Church Compensation Study 2026 (Lifeway Research, GuideStone, state conventions) | Free, including the online lookup tool | Full-time senior pastors, staff ministers and office personnel, by attendance, budget, region and setting | 3,888 responses, April 29 to June 29, 2026 | Every church under 1,000 attendance, as a starting point |
| ChurchSalary (Church Law & Tax) | $135 a year (9 staff, 1 campus), $199 (18, 4), $359 (36, 8), $699 (unlimited) | Salary reports by position with church metrics, benefit averages, cost of living, salary tables on Pro+ | Built on the National Church Compensation Survey | Small and midsize churches of any tradition |
| MinistryPay (The Church Network) | Member $149, free if you enter data. Non-member $249, $100 with data (FAQ). Current page cites a $200 member discount | Online survey updated continuously, data trended forward, multiple users per church | Participating churches and ministries nationwide | Executive pastors and church business administrators |
| Church Compensation Report 2026 (Church Compensation Services) | $795 participant, $2,385 non-participant | 173 positions, by attendance, budget, denomination and region | 186 churches, about 19,700 employees, all 1,000+ attendance with $2M+ budgets | Large churches and megachurches |
| Multi-site Church Compensation Report 2026 | $1,095 participant, $3,285 non-participant | Same positions, grouped by campus size | 640 campuses of the same 186 churches | Pricing campus pastors and campus staff |
| Church Benefits Report 2025 (Church Compensation Services) | $199 participant, $597 non-participant | Health, dental, vision, life, disability, retirement, tuition and paid time off | 170 churches, about 20,000 employees | Large churches redesigning benefits |
| Vanderbloemen annual compensation report | Free to read | Senior, executive, worship and student pastor trends by region, budget and size | Not stated as a job-matched sample | Context for a pastoral search |
| Church Law & Tax guidance books | Church Compensation, second edition with 2025 updates $39.95. Setting Wages and Benefits for Church Staff $17.95 | How to set and document pay, tax treatment, compliance | Guidance, not survey data | A personnel committee setting policy |
| WageList | $99 a month, or $588 a year | Office, finance, facilities, childcare and other staff roles by metro, with a band and a postable range | Built on the federal wage survey | Non-pastoral staff, and any job posted in a pay transparency state |
Honest caveats. Our own row does not price pastoral roles well, for the reason shown in section 04, so it does not replace a church survey for the senior pastor or the worship pastor. The Church Compensation Services report has no data for churches under 1,000 attendance. Participation in its 2026 survey is closed, so this year's price is the non-participant one unless you already submitted. And MinistryPay prints two different non-member figures in two places, which is why we show both.
What a church survey counts as compensation
The Southern Baptist study defines compensation differently by role. For office and custodial staff and for non-ordained ministers, compensation is salary. For ordained ministers, it is salary plus the housing allowance plus the fair rental value of church-owned housing plus utilities the church pays on that housing. Its wider "pay package" figure adds retirement contributions, insurance and, for ministers, the Social Security offset many churches pay.
That is the right way to compare ministers, because a pastor in a parsonage and a pastor with a cash allowance are paid the same in substance. It also means a committee holding the pastor's W-2 is comparing the wrong number. The W-2 box 1 figure leaves out an excluded housing allowance entirely, and no W-2 shows the value of a parsonage.
Federal wage data goes the other way. The BLS survey records cash wages and leaves out non-cash pay, so a parsonage is never in a federal clergy figure, and a cash allowance is only there if the church reported it as wages. Before you set a pastor's band against any source, write down which of the four pieces that source includes.
Two pastors, same pay in substance
Pastor A, cash allowance
Salary $48,000 plus allowance $18,000 is $66,000
Pastor B, parsonage
Salary $48,000, parsonage worth $16,800, utilities $3,600, total $68,400
| Piece of pay | Federal income tax | Self-employment tax | SBC study compensation | BLS wage figure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash salary | Taxable | Included | Included | Included |
| Designated housing allowance | Excluded up to the smallest of designated, spent, and fair rental value plus utilities | Included in full | Included | Only if reported as wages |
| Parsonage, fair rental value | Excluded | Included | Included | Not included |
| Utilities paid on church housing | Excluded | Included | Included | Not included |
| Social Security offset | Taxable | Included | Counted in pay package, not compensation | Usually included as cash |
Sources: IRS Publication 517 (housing exclusion limits and the self-employment tax base, including its parsonage example where a $39,000 salary and a $12,000 parsonage give $51,000 of net earnings); Lifeway Research, 2026 Southern Baptist Church Compensation Study methodology; BLS OEWS wage definitions.
Where churches pay below the local market
The federal wage survey publishes religious organizations (NAICS 813100) as their own industry. Set its May 2025 medians against the same jobs across all industries and a pattern shows up. Ministry roles sit close to the all-industry figure, because almost every clergy member and religious education director works for a religious employer anyway. The roles with portable skills sit well below it.
Church office managers earn 15.0 percent less than office managers everywhere else. Music directors earn 11.4 percent less, administrative assistants 8.1 percent less, bookkeepers 5.8 percent less. Those four are the people a school, a medical practice or an accounting firm down the road can hire away with a single offer, and church surveys, which compare churches with churches, will not show you the gap.
The federal data has its own blind spot. It counts only 24,750 clergy on the payrolls of religious organizations nationwide, a small fraction of US congregations, and it cannot cut by attendance or budget. For pastoral roles, use a church survey. For everyone else, use the local market.
-15.0%
Church office managers against office managers in every industry, May 2025 medians ($59,070 against $69,500). The widest gap of any church role in the federal data.
Clergy
Directors of religious activities and education
Music directors
Office managers and supervisors
Administrative assistants
Bookkeepers
Custodians
Childcare workers
Bar length is the gap below the all-industry median, scale 0 to 16 percent. Dark bars are gaps of 5 percent or more.
| Role | Church 25th pct | Church median | Church 75th pct | All industries median | Jobs at religious orgs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clergy | $43,860 | $58,680 | $77,770 | $60,810 | 24,750 |
| Directors of religious activities and education | $43,340 | $50,980 | $72,430 | $52,100 | 17,220 |
| Music directors | $50,000 | $65,290 | $97,970 | $73,710 | 3,760 |
| Office managers and supervisors | $47,720 | $59,070 | $75,050 | $69,500 | 1,960 |
| Administrative assistants | $36,760 | $43,710 | $48,080 | $47,540 | 14,570 |
| Bookkeepers | $38,370 | $47,750 | $59,180 | $50,670 | 5,610 |
| Custodians | $34,740 | $36,480 | $42,670 | $36,840 | 9,770 |
| Childcare workers | $32,240 | $34,580 | $36,710 | $34,980 | 7,000 |
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, religious organizations (NAICS 813100) and cross-industry national estimates, read from the BLS public data API. Office managers are first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers; custodians are janitors and cleaners.
What three churches would actually spend
Three realistic churches, priced from the table above. The pattern repeats: the free study and a cheap membership cover pastoral roles for most congregations, and the money goes either on the large church report or on getting non-pastoral roles right where the law makes you post a number.
180 attendees, Colorado
6 staff, $900,000 budget
- SBC study and lookup tool
- $0
- ChurchSalary Basic
- $135
- Total
- $135
Colorado requires a pay range in every posting from the first employee, so the part-time bookkeeper ad needs a local number as well.
600 attendees, Washington
18 staff, The Church Network member
- MinistryPay, data entered
- $0
- ChurchSalary Expanded
- $199
- Total
- $199
At 15 or more employees, Washington requires a wage scale in postings. The facilities manager and the preschool director are the two roles to price against the market.
1,400 attendees, Texas
45 staff, two campuses
- Church Compensation Report, non-participant
- $2,385
- ChurchSalary Pro+ (over 36 staff)
- $699
- Total this year
- $3,084
Submit data for 2027 and the same order is $1,494. The multi-site report is worth it only once campus pastors are priced by campus size.
How the general-market publishers compare is on our salary survey providers page, and the faith-based nonprofits that sit next to churches (schools, ministries, relief agencies) are covered in the nonprofit salary survey comparison.
Pay rules that apply to church staff
Ministers pay their own Social Security
A minister's church wages are exempt from FICA, and the minister pays self-employment tax at 15.3 percent on salary plus housing unless the IRS has approved a Form 4361 exemption. Ministerial wages are also outside mandatory income tax withholding under IRC 3401(a)(9), so many ministers make estimated payments or ask for voluntary withholding.
Overtime still reaches church schools
A church-run preschool or school is a covered enterprise under FLSA section 3(s)(1)(B), whether or not it operates for profit, and office or facilities staff can be individually covered. Salaried non-ministerial staff need to pass the duties tests and the exempt salary threshold to skip overtime. Wage claims by ministers themselves are generally barred by the ministerial exception.
Posting laws count heads
State pay transparency laws define employers by headcount. A church hiring an administrator in Colorado, Washington, New York, Illinois or California should plan on a range in the ad. Our pay transparency laws by state guide covers each state and salary ranges in job postings shows what a compliant range looks like.
Benefits are where the free study is most useful to a committee. In 2026, only 37 percent of Southern Baptist congregations paid medical insurance for their senior pastor, against 65 percent in 2008. Coverage rises with size: 26 percent of churches under 50 attendees pay for at least the pastor's coverage, 46 percent of churches with 100 to 249. If your package includes insurance, your cash salary can sit lower than the average and still be competitive, which is exactly what a pay package comparison shows.
Four church jobs a church survey prices badly
Bookkeeper and finance
Your bookkeeper compares offers with local businesses. The federal church median is 5.8 percent under the market, so price it against your metro.
Office manager
The widest gap in the data, 15.0 percent. The office manager who runs the calendar, the database and the volunteers is the hardest person to replace.
Facilities and custodial
Church pay tracks the market closely here, but a facilities manager with HVAC and contractor oversight is a different job from a custodian.
Preschool and childcare
Covered by overtime rules and state childcare wage floors. A weekday preschool director should be priced against local childcare centers.
Price the office, finance and facilities roles in your city
Market data by metro, a band per role, and a range you can paste into the posting. No sales call to find out what it costs.
Who buys church salary data and what they need from it
The executive pastor
Building the budget for 10 to 60 staff and needing every salary to be explainable to the elders and to the staff member sitting across the table.
The church business administrator
Running payroll, benefits and hiring, often alone. See WageList for nonprofits.
The personnel committee
Volunteers setting the pastor's package once a year. They need a clear definition of what is being compared and a structure for the rest of the staff.
The church in a posting state
Hiring an administrator or a preschool teacher in a state that requires a range in the ad, and needing a current number for that job.
Church compensation survey questions committees ask
How much should a church pay its pastor?
Start from attendance, budget and experience rather than a flat figure. The 2026 Southern Baptist study found each extra weekly attendee adds about $15 to a senior pastor's compensation, each extra $1,000 of budget adds $36, and each year in ministry adds $425. A seminary degree adds $5,361, while a rural setting takes $3,986 off.
What percentage of a church budget should go to salaries?
Most churches spend between 42 and 50 percent of the budget on staff pay and benefits. The 2026 Southern Baptist study puts the average at 45 percent, rising with size: 42 percent under 50 attendees, 46 percent at 50 to 99, 47 percent at 100 to 249 and 50 percent at 250 or more.
Is the Lifeway compensation study free?
Yes. The Southern Baptist Church Compensation Study, run every two years by Lifeway Research, GuideStone and the Baptist state conventions, publishes its results and an online lookup tool at no cost. The 2026 edition used 3,888 responses collected between April 29 and June 29, 2026, and any church can use it.
How much does ChurchSalary cost?
ChurchSalary is sold as an annual membership priced by staff count. Basic is $135 a year for up to 9 staff and 1 campus, Expanded $199 for 18 staff and 4 campuses, Pro $359 for 36 staff and 8 campuses, and Pro+ $699 for unlimited staff and campuses with salary tables.
How much does the Church Compensation Report cost?
The 2026 Church Compensation Report from Church Compensation Services costs $795 for participating churches and $2,385 for everyone else. The multi-site edition is $1,095 or $3,285, and the separate benefits report $199 or $597. It covers 173 positions at 186 churches, all with 1,000 or more weekly attendees.
How much does MinistryPay cost?
MinistryPay from The Church Network is a one-year online subscription. Its FAQ lists $149 for members, free for members who enter their own staff data, $249 for non-members and $100 for non-members who contribute data. Its current product page describes a $200 member discount, so confirm the non-member price at checkout.
Does a pastor's housing allowance count as salary?
It depends which rulebook is counting. For federal income tax, a designated housing allowance is excluded up to the smallest of the amount designated, the amount actually spent and fair rental value plus utilities. For self-employment tax it is included in full, and the Southern Baptist study counts it inside compensation.
Do churches have to post salary ranges in job ads?
Posting laws define covered employers by headcount, not by tax status, so a church posting an administrator, bookkeeper or facilities job in a covered state should expect to include a range. Colorado applies from the first employee and Washington from 15. Whether a pastoral role is reached is a ministerial exception question for counsel.
Start with the role you are hiring this month
Pick the job, pick the market, get a band and a postable range in under a minute.
Keep going
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Nonprofit salary survey
Candid, state nonprofit associations and others, priced.
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Nonprofit executive compensation
How the IRS judges reasonable pay for a leader.
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Salary survey cost
What a salary survey costs across industries, and what moves the price.
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Salary bands
Turning percentiles into grades the whole staff shares.