Launching the 2026 Ministers' Salary Survey
For over twenty years, the Siburt Institute Ministers’ Salary Survey has sought to help ministers and churches as they navigate the tricky waters of minister compensation. Before launching the 2026 version of the survey, our associate director, Dr. David Kneip, sat down (virtually) with our research director, Dr. Suzie Macaluso, to talk about the survey specifically and congregational research in general.
David: Suzie, we are excited that you are taking on the leadership of the Salary Survey in your role as research director for Siburt! Given your background in the social sciences broadly and the sociology of religion specifically, let me start with a couple of general questions: What are the benefits of survey data as a tool for learning? How can survey data help church leaders?
Suzie: I'm so excited to get to work on the Salary Survey again this year and to help churches and ministers understand the current job market. As a sociologist of religion, I have studied many aspects of church life in the United States, and I think the Salary Survey is a very unique tool that can really help ministers and church leaders. The data from the Salary Survey is an amazing tool that church leaders and ministers have been using for the last two decades. The data allows ministers to understand the potential earnings that they might receive, helping them as they consider a new position. At the same time, it helps church leaders understand what is expected and establish some norms for ministerial payment. I think it's also really great that the Salary Survey goes beyond base pay and looks at all the other types of compensation that ministers could potentially receive. I think it can be hard to imagine what that total compensation with those extras might be, and this survey allows us to monetize those extras and think more broadly about ministerial compensation.
David: OK, a follow-up that is more specific. We’ve been running this annual survey for over 20 years now, and I know that you’ve been involved with it to some degree over the last few years. But now you’re taking on a greater leadership role, so: What is it about the Salary Survey that excites you? Are there strengths or growth areas here that are compelling to you?
Suzie: The thing that excites me about the Salary Survey is that it helps church leaders and ministers make decisions based on data, not just anecdotal evidence. I want people to have all the information at their disposal so they can make the best possible decisions for their congregations, both as ministers and as church leaders. I also think it's really exciting to consider a dataset that spans multiple decades, that thus gives us the potential to track salaries over that period of time, and that can help us see how that might compare with national averages and the national scene. So, that's something I hope to bring to this new role: an extra level of data analysis.
We are always working to make the survey more helpful and more understandable for its participants. Are there any specific changes or clarifications that we’ve made this year? If so, what are the goals for those changes?
Suzie: We made some important changes last year that helped us gain greater clarity on a congregation's location. The location of a congregation makes a big difference in the expectations for salary, and so we are able to look at not just the region of the country where a church is, but also what state they're in and whether they are in a rural area, a small town, a suburb, or an urban locale. Taken together, this information really helps us narrow down expectations and drill into the data. One of the goals of adding those geographic markers is to help us understand rural and small-town congregations and how they can be an anchor in their local communities, and this is part of the Empower and Equip initiative that the Siburt Institute is participating in.
David: We’ll look forward to seeing the results of the survey at the beginning of the summer, but just right now, I’m curious: As you look at the broad landscape of challenges and opportunities facing ministers and churches right now, what are some things that we might expect to see in future versions of the survey? For example, there is a lot of conversation about health insurance in broader society at the moment. Do you expect that this may change things for churches and ministers in the near future?
Suzie: As we move forward in our work on the Salary Survey, I would anticipate that insurance will become a larger part of the conversation—especially considering the changes that have come to the insurance marketplace. Insurance prices have been rising overall, not just health insurance but also building insurance, and so that might have an effect on parsonages or ministers living in homes that are owned by the church. I am curious to see if that becomes less common as simply insuring those buildings become cost-prohibitive. I'm also interested to see how church size will continue to play a role in compensation, along with church location.
David: Any last comments?
Suzie: I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who has participated in the Ministers’ Salary Survey in the past, and those who will click the link and participate this year. We really appreciate the time you take to respond to the surveys sent by the Siburt Institute. The data is only as good as the folks who respond to it can help make it, so the more people who respond to the survey, the more accurate our data can be. I want to encourage everyone to participate and send this on to other ministers you know.
If you are a paid minister in Churches of Christ, we would appreciate it if you would fill out the survey, which you can find at this link. It should take approximately 8-10 minutes of your time, and your answers will help churches and ministers across the country!
