What People Earn

This Sunday, Parade Magazine issued their annual “What People Earn” edition.  I don’t know if it is healthy or not, but I always love seeing what other people make compared to me.  You can find out some of them here. Here are some thoughts on what I saw some people make:

• Taylor Swift made $17.2 million.  I have nothing wrong with that as my girls love her music and I have a lot of respect for musicians who write their own music.
• Jay Leno makes $32 million.  I have something wrong with this considering his 10 pm show stunk and the network kicked out Conan.
• A cartoonist makes $50,000.  I wonder what kind of cartoons he makes.  Is he published or part of a team of cartoonists making cartoons?  I’m sure Charles Shultz made a lot more than this.
• A 911 dispatcher makes $67,000. That’s great since they are trying to get people’s lives saved, but honestly, I thought it would be less.
• A call-center manager makes $85,700.  That is impressive, but aren’t youth workers call-center managers too?

Looking at these salaries caused me to reflect on youth ministers and how much we get paid.  A few years ago, in an effort to get a pay raise, I did a survey of similar sized (and a few larger) churches in my area and what they pay their youth ministers.  Going into the informal survey, I was pretty sure that youth workers were getting paid fairly low.  What I found out was that I was right – youth ministers were getting salaries lower than they should be.

How did I make this determination?  As you might imagine, it would be unfair to compare what youth ministers make to that of a CEO or a professional athlete.  So, based on a suggestion from a friend and fellow youth worker, I compared salaries to that of a local teacher – a profession most people would agree is similar in job description and expectations.

The criteria I used to make this judgment was that I compared a youth ministers time served and years of formal education (training) to that of the local teacher.  Then, I compared the teacher’s salary to the youth ministers.  Based on my findings, it was determined that youth workers get paid less than teachers – at least about 10% less.  Again, this was an informal study, but it was interesting to see the differences especially since most people would argue that teachers are underpaid.

So what about you?  How do you feel about the salary you earn?  Obviously most people want to earn more and I don’t want this to turn into a ranting or complaining session about how little youth ministers make.  But, I believe that because youth ministers are paid so low compared to other professions, that is why so many leave their calling (or move on to other ministry positions) or have to get 2nd jobs.  They cannot afford to stay in that position with a growing family.   It is really too bad.

So TAKE A MINUTE to…

1. think through what you earn (and other youth ministers) and how do you manage with the salary you earn.  Also, is there a way or rationale for a higher base salary.  For instance, when I 1st started in 1997, my salary was $15,000 and no benefits. That was for a middle school FT position.  I would like to hope things have changed since, but if not, should there be a standard starting base?
2. then, post a comment so we can be encouraging each other.  AGAIN, this is not meant to be a complaining comment board so please refrain.  I want this to be constructive and encouraging to all of us.

Thanks for reading everyone!  Like it or hate it, post a comment so we can all benefit.

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