Understanding the Salary Report

Every ChurchSalary report contains several sections crammed with numbers and charts. To help you interpret all this data and to get the most out of your report, we’ve created a series of how-to videos.
To follow along with these videos, we recommend that you have a salary report in hand. If you don’t have a report or are considering becoming an annual member, download this sample report.
Still have questions? Check out our FAQs.
What is the Salary Calculator? ![]() |
How to Use Your Report ![]() |
Nationwide Salary Summary ![]() |
Localizing Salaries ![]() |
Salary Comparison ![]() |
Employment Profile & Benefits ![]() |
Cost of Living Comparison ![]() |
Comparable Jobs ![]() |

How-To Videos
What is the Salary Calculator?
What is the Salary Calculator? What makes it so powerful? And how can you use it to make informed decisions about compensation in your church?
How to Use Your Report
The data in every ChurchSalary report is designed to help you perform three basic salary review steps.
Nationwide Salary Summary
Learn more about the first section of every ChurchSalary report. What is the blue chart showing you? And what do all the labels mean?
Localized Salary Recommendation
To get a sense of what you should pay pastors at your church, you need to do more than just ask the church down the road. Learn more about ChurchSalary’s new Localized Salary Recommendation tool in this in-depth video.
Additional Resources:
- Introducing Localized Salary Recommendations
- Unpacking Localization
- Learn more about salary spreads and ranges.
- Download a free Excel spreadsheet to generate custom salary ranges.
Salary Comparison
Every employee is different. But how do you attach a dollar amount to those differences? How should you value a master’s degree or ten years of experience? Learn more about compensation factors and the Salary Comparison section in this in-depth video.
Employment Profile & Benefits
What does the average pastor or staff member look like? How do they stack up against their peers? And what benefits should you offer your employees? Learn more about the Employment Profile and Benefit sections in this in-depth video.
Cost of Living Comparison
Two of the most eye-opening numbers in every ChurchSalary report are the cost of living index and median household income. What are they? And how do they apply to you and your church? Learn more about the often misunderstood Cost of Living Comparison section in this in-depth video.
Additional Reading:
Comparable Jobs
Churches used to benchmark compensation based on the salaries of local school teachers. Thanks to ChurchSalary’s powerful calculator, this approach can be updated for the twenty-first century. Learn more about what the Comparable Jobs section is showing you and how to interpret the data in this in-depth video.
For a comprehensive list of all the comparable jobs and their corresponding Bureau of Labor Statistics titles, descriptions, and codes, consult this FAQ.
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