Fair compensation is a social justice issue.
Barbara Brown, the Central Midwest District's
Compensation Consultant and the Rev. Ralph Mero, the Director of the UUA Department
of Ministry's Office of Church Staff
Finances, provided information on the support the denomination provides
and the resources that have been developed to assist congregations in working
toward justice on this important issue. The major resource for discussion was
the September 2000 Report Clergy & Church Staff Compensation which
is one of a number of resources on the Church
Staff Finance Office's webpages.
The UUA's efforts around compensation began in the 1980's with a perceived concern that the quality of student entering the ministry was being affected by the low level of compensation. Studies showed that our practices were embarrassing compared to other professions and even to other denominations. For example, in 1994, only 47% of our ministers had health insurance for themselves and their families compared to 80% of Episcopal priests and their families.
There are still a number of older ministers and ministers' surviving spouses who are living in desperate circumstances. There also pitfalls in congregational experiences when dysfunctional congregations have used cuts in compensation as an inappropriate substitution for dealing with issues around poor performance, leading to someone ending up on what turned out to be literally starvation wages over a period of three years.
A number of problems are unique to churches, including issues around the one-time practice of ministers opting out of Social Security affecting pension planning and working with the imputed value of parsonages, which further complicate the issues.
All twenty-three of our UUA districts have compensation consultants. Consultants' services are free to the churches. They are volunteers, whose travel and expenses are reimbursed by the denomination and who have training and experience on the specifics of church compensation. A number of district consultants were at the workshop and provided examples of their experiences and successes in working with churches.
Most congregations have two major goals around compensation: they want to know "what the right thing to do is" and "how to get to that goal." The resources mentioned above can assist congregations in those goals.
Reported for the Web by Lynn Calvin
General Assembly 2001 · Program Grid
