Results from Christianity Today’s biannual survey of 4,600 churches nationwide, which are featured in the new 2012-2013 Compensation Handbook for Church Staff, reveal the top 7 paid positions based on gender.
Even though the top spot for men or women is senior pastor, men typically are compensated more than their female counterparts. Some of this may be explained on the basis of church income, which proved to be the biggest factor affecting compensation and benefits in the study. For example, in churches with male senior pastors, church income (i.e. revenue) averages about $710,000, while church income where women serve as senior pastors hovers at about $487,000. This gap in revenue could explain, in part, why women senior pastors tend to be paid less.
Male executive pastors earn nearly 50 percent more than women in this same role. The gender pay gap closes for solo pastors. Although 92 percent of solo pastors are men (paid an average of $57,452), they earn only slightly more than women solo pastors (paid an average of $54,102).
