At ChurchSalary, we try hard to not be alarmist or to exaggerate, but I am concerned about several findings from this year’s State of Church Compensation Survey.
For the last four years, ChurchSalary has surveyed churches with the primary goal of helping leaders reach a consensus on a cost of living adjustment to offset inflation and to stay on track with marketplace increases to salaries and benefits.
In this year’s survey, we added several questions designed to answer a three specific research questions, based on our observations and some hunches:
- Is church giving and spending growing faster than inflation (or slower)?
- Are churches growing faster in size than their finances? And is this making it harder for them to hire and pay staff?
- Are certain types of expenses and giving disproportionately helping or hurting churches?
Concerning Trends
Based on responses from over 412 leaders in this year’s survey, plus a longitudinal retrospective conducted using data from across our 2022–2026 surveys, we have identified what we feel to be seven concerning trends:
- (1) While 75% of churches grew both their attendance and total operating budget,
- (2) 52% of churches suffered a decrease in per person giving (the ratio of budget to attendance).
Between 2022 and 2026:
- (3) 19% more churches are being forced to increase spending on benefits,
- (4) 7% fewer churches are raising salaries and have shifted instead into maintenance mode,
- (5) Despite these challenges, 51% more churches increased the size of their staff in 2026 than in 2022.
Overall, driven in part by creeping costs coupled with decreasing or flat per person giving:
- (6) 16.3% of churches are actively seeking new funding sources.
- (7) 8% more churches significantly increased their overall staff budget in 2026 than in 2022.
Because of these pressures, 66% of churches are bracing to spend more on benefits in 2027, in part because of the skyrocketing cost of health insurance.
Additionally, 75% of churches are planning to increase salaries/wages to keep pace with persistent and rising inflation, but 82% plan to apply a cost-of-living-adjustment of less than 3.7%, which is the the most recent CPI inflation rate reported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
To compensate for these increased pressures, 62% of churches plan to maintain and 6% plan to decrease their staff size in the coming year — a wild 14 point swing away from the hiring boom that churches reported in 2026.
Planned Budget & Compensation Changes for 2027
If you don't have time to read the full report, we've condensed the most relevant content from this year's results into five main headlines:
- 66% of churches are bracing to spend more on benefits in 2027 because of the skyrocketing cost of health insurance.
- 75% of churches are planning to increase salaries and wages for staff to keep pace with persistent and rising inflation.
- To compensate for these increased pressures, 62% of churches plan to maintain and 6% plan to decrease their staff size in 2027 — a 14 point swing away from the hiring boom reported by churches in 2026.
- 55% of churches are planning to offer a cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) of 3% to offset inflation — with an average increase of 2.9% — even though inflation has now reached 3.7% year-over-year.
- As a result, unless something changes, over half of church staff wages are at risk of falling further behind inflation.
Benefits
In general, between 60% and 83% of churches are trying to spend a similar amount of money on all benefits in 2026 and 2027, with the exception of health insurance.
Two-thirds (66%) of churches are planning to spend more on in their 2027 budgets on health insurance as opposed to only 57% in 2026 — an almost 10 point swing.
Salary & Compensation Changes
Leaders plan to make more meager salary and overall payroll budget changes to their 2027 budgets than they made last year.
Of particular note is the fact that 46–47% of churches increased benefits by a larger amount than salaries in both 2026 and 2027.
This repeated prioritization of benefits is clearly visible in the average benefit increase in 2027 of 4.6% versus the average salary increase of only 3.6%. This 1 point gap reflects the magnitude of the ongoing pressure that church are feeling from constant health insurance premium increases. Despite the best efforts of leaders, we believe that these premium increases are eating into salary growth and raises for church employees.
That said, much like cost-of-living-adjustments for 2027, leaders are already in strong alignment on planned changes for 2027:
- Over half of churches (55%) plan to increase salaries/wages by 3 to 5.9% (median = 3.5% / avg. = 3.6%).
- 70% of leaders plan to increase benefits by the same range of 3 to 5.9% (median = 4% / avg. = 4.6%).
- 50% of churches are targeting an overall increase to their payroll budgets of 3 to 5.9% (median = 4% / avg. = 4.1%).
Cost of Living Adjustment
Church leaders are aligned on a COLA of between 2.2% and 3.8% with a median adjustment of 3% for 2027 budgets.
This is one of our biggest concerns — that over half of all churches are going to apply a COLA adjustment that falls below the 3.7% year-over-year inflation rate reported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in September 2026. Our fear is that this will cause more employees to fall behind and make it harder for associate-level staff to justify a career in the church which pays roughly 20–30% less than the secular market.
