Fall
Ministries Setting fair standards for parish wages
By PATRICIA LEFEVERE
The priests housekeeper. The
director of religious education. Both perform a vital function in a parish. How
much should they be paid for doing their respective jobs?
When a committee charged with formulating personnel policy,
including compensation, for church employees in the Oakland, Calif., diocese
began researching what parishes in the diocese paid for similar jobs, they
uncovered salary differentials of $30,000 for the same post.
They also discovered that one housekeeper was earning the
equivalent of $70,000, compared to $10,000 to $15,000 for some directors of
religious education, when annual pay was measured at an hourly rate per 40-hour
week.
We were shocked at the discrepancies between parishes. There
was no consistency. Each pastor was paying what he wanted to pay, said
Kevin Staszkow, a member of the committee formed in 1999. Despite the existence
of diocesan salary guidelines, which at that point were last updated in 1992,
few were following them, said Staszkow, who directs religious
education at Our Lady of Grace parish in Castro Valley, Calif.
The committee found some workers grossly underpaid. It
wasnt that poor parishes were underpaying their workers. In fact, a lot
of wealthier parishes were hiring people with other incomes and writing them
down as working 19 hours per week to avoid paying benefits, Staszkow said.
We knew we needed to start paying just wages across the diocese. The
committee saw this as a justice issue.
Devising a uniform personnel policy for an entire diocese with job
descriptions, levels of responsibility, compensation and benefit packages
looked like a daunting task and one that would require at least 18 months
work. But then the committee found that the National Association of Church
Personnel Administrators had been doing this type of work for years. The
finding came when a committee member discovered a manual on parish pay put out
by the association.
The Cincinnati-based organization serves human resource managers
and personnel directors and dedicates itself to developing just personnel
practices for all church employees. Since the Oakland committee had already set
the paying of a just wage as its standard, there was no need to reinvent
the wheel, Staszkow told NCR.
The National Association of Church Personnel Administrators
believes the fairest and most equitable parish compensation practices occur
where diocesan-wide pay guidelines exist for all ministries and staff levels.
Such guidelines help parishes establish fair pay rates for all employees.
In presenting the guidelines, the national association uses a
number of encyclicals, the U.S. bishops pastoral Economic Justice for
All, plus Canons 231 and 1286 to underline the just wage principle.
The national association classifies some 20 categories of jobs
from parish administrator and business manager to catechist and maintenance
worker. Although teachers and principals are not on the list, others positions
connected with a parish school, such as cafeteria and library staff, are
included. So, too, are detailed job descriptions outlining responsibilities,
educational and skill requirements and work experience. The classifications
cover top managerial posts as well as those of support staff.
After studying national association surveys and resource
materials, the Oakland diocese was able to develop its Parish Compensation
Policy. Now when a position is advertised, the salary scale associated with it
is posted, Staszkow said. Moreover, the entire personnel policy is in a binder
in every parish. Its also on the Web site:
www.oakdiocese.org.
The national association urges church personnel directors and
human resource managers to put their policies and practices into writing and to
disseminate them as widely as possible. It makes good financial and legal
sense. Some insurers have denied liability coverage to dioceses without a
written policy.
Still youd be surprised how many have nothing in
writing, said Ursuline Sr. Ellen Doyle, executive director of the
national association. At least six women who attended a consultation of women
in diocesan leadership in Chicago in March approached Doyle to tell her that
their diocese had no formal compensation policy. Instead, department heads set
salaries.
Doyles organization does not encourage dioceses to set pay
policy for all parishes, but favors guidelines or a model that is applicable to
all parishes. It handles two or three parish surveys a year, and revises
classification systems and pay ranges for parishes every three years. The
association provides a handbook on how to prepare personnel policy.
The wider the consultation in preparing these policies, the
better, Doyle said. People want to have their concerns heard even if they
themselves are not the decision-makers.
In Oakland, Staszkow represented the Lay Ecclesial Ministers
Council on the diocesan Compensation Committee. The council is one of four
consultative bodies that serve in an advisory capacity to Oakland Bishop John
Cummins. Founded in 1998, it is thought to be the first of its kind in the
nation where lay ecclesial ministers have been placed in an official
consultative capacity to their bishop within the structure of the diocese.
The council assists Cummins and the diocese by providing a forum
for support and formation of lay ministers. It also works to implement church
teaching on the laity by providing broadened opportunities for lay
participation in the life and ministry of the church, said Kelly Dulka, one of
13 council members. The council also fosters spiritual formation and
professional development for its lay ministers, she told NCR.
A growing organization
Both Oaklands Compensation Committee and the national
association grew out of the concerns of priests for the ongoing work of the
church. The national association, which began in 1971, was the brainchild of
the National Federation of Priests Councils, who realized they were
wrestling as priests with issues outside their purview, Doyle said. Today the
national association has 1,200 members. Five years ago, the percentage of lay
members -- 40 -- overtook the percentage of priests (35) and religious (25) for
the first time.
Since 1990 the organization has been best known for its annual
National Diocesan Salary Survey. Its 2000 survey includes salaries and
salary ranges for 66 diocesan administrative and ministry positions found in
Catholic sees and Catholic Charities agencies. Responses to the national
associations survey came from 58 percent of U.S. Catholic dioceses and
from 80 Catholic Charities offices.
Although it tracks the salaries of religious separately from those
of lay ministers, the national association advocates comprehensive personnel
systems that can be applied to religious, clergy and lay ministers. The notion
that a bishop should not have to pay a layperson more than the traditionally
low wage he pays his priests and nuns is not totally dead, though it is waning,
Doyle told NCR.
In Oakland, the answer to the question: How do I get a good
youth minister? is Offer $50,000 per year, Staszkow said,
even though the average national salary among the 72 dioceses responding to the
national associations survey last year was $38,480. Youth ministers have
left in Oakland and have become teachers in public schools or campus ministers
in Catholic high schools because they were unable to support a family in the
Bay Area on a youth ministers salary -- about $28,000-$33,000, Staszkow
said.
Now that Oaklands Presbyteral Council unanimously supported
and mandated the guidelines for personnel policy and pay scales, most priests
are happy, Staszkow said, adding that there are always some who dont like
to be told what to do. Whats more, few jobs were lost, and many staff --
particularly those at the low end of the scale -- got raises. But
Oaklands Catholics know theyll have to give more and pay more to
attract and hold quality employees.
That perception is growing nationally, Doyle said, as are
salaries. A sampling of 45 administrative and ministerial positions found in
the National Diocesan Salary Survey revealed that diocesan salaries grew by 22
percent between 1995 and 2000. Most positions experienced increases between 15
and 30 percent, but six positions increased by 30 percent or more while 10 grew
by less than 15 percent.
Doyle indicated that there is much work ahead, especially to
provide a living wage to those at the bottom and to young people emerging from
formation programs who may look outside the church if they cannot earn a living
wage within it.
The national association believes that salaries must be based on a
person irrespective of whether the person is male or female, father or mother,
head of household or childless. Family and other needs are best addressed in a
benefits package, not in compensation, Doyle said.
Church salaries will never be competitive with those in the
secular world, she added. But all church workers who contribute their
time, expertise, blood, sweat, tears, faith, service and ministry need to have
that respected and to know that they are effective.
National Catholic Reporter, September 7,
2001
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