What Women Earn
By Heather Weber
Recently, in the New York Times, I read this story about the class action suit female employees brought against Wal-Mart in 2001. One of the original plaintiffs, Stephanie Odle, tells of her initial complaint in finding out that one of the male employees, in a parallel assistant manager position, was receiving 23K more per year than she was. When she brought this to the attention of her supervising manager she was told that the male assistant manager had “a family and two children to support.” At the time, Odle was a single mother of an infant.
This situation occurred in a secular arena, but I see parallels to the church today in the message that is being sent to women who serve and lead: for some reason, women’s time and work is less valuable than the work of their male counterparts, as evidenced by the way they are compensated (or not compensated). In my extended family network, I am related to male youth pastor and his wife (a preschool teacher, grad student, and mother of three). About 10 years ago, when they were just starting out as a married couple, Rob* got a job with a very low starting salary at a rural Lutheran church in the Midwest. With his hiring came the “understanding” that Megan would also be overseeing the adult Sunday School class administration as well as other areas of church life. Rob was officially paid the salary. Megan was expected to work for free. I should mention that quite soon after “they” took the position, Megan gave birth to their first child. Wobbly and exhausted, she was back at the church doing unpaid work within five days of the birth because it was expected she do “her” job. Now she says she should have known better. But shame on those church people for turning a blind eye.
This sort of situation doesn’t happen in the secular, regulated business arena as much as it does in church infrastructure these days. What’s occurring is a two-for-one: the church gets double the labor and the woman works for free because, somehow, her work doesn’t quite measure up as being worthy of remuneration.
What are your experiences and observations on this topic? How and why do you think churches get away with rationalizing their failure to compensate women as they do men? Is there spiritual rhetoric being used to justify it? If so, what?
*names are changed to protect privacy
Heather Weber is a part-time assistant pastor in Iowa City, IA, and a homeschooling mother of three. She has an MFA in creative writing and blogs about (among other things) the intersection of life, culture, and faith at www.onravenstreet.com.
Tags: church staff, Heather Weber, wages, Women in Ministry, women in the workforce, Workplace inequality
September 11th, 2010 at 9:14 am
I go back and forth on this. I’m married to a seminarian and part-time church worker, I’m a graduate student writing a dissertation, and I have a passion for ministry in our community as well.
On the one hand, I absolutely agree that the situation described above is (or at least has been) incredibly common: I grew up watching the two-for-one deal and hearing gossip about pastors’ wives who weren’t involved enough (usually accused of being “uppity” or “stand-offish”).
With shifts in the professionalization of ministry and women’s entry into vocational pastoral roles (which is taking longer outside of mainline contexts), some of these dynamics have changed. For instance, when my (MCUSA) congregation’s founding pastor married a retired professional a little later in life it was always very clear that while he was part of the spiritual community, he had no responsibilities or expectations as the “pastor’s husband.” In another (PCUSA) church I interacted with recently, the pastor’s wife wasn’t even a regular attender, and the congregation seemed fine with that.
What makes me a little uncomfortable, though, is this idea of “fair compensation.” I strongly believe that pastors of churches should be compensated at a level commensurate with the economic standards of their community, if that’s possible. I believe that work done on behalf of the congregation, particularly as it often represents years of education (and often educational loans) and a sacrifice of time, is deserving of fair pay. (Believe me, as the one who balances our checkbook and prays for miracles, I know the struggles associated with living on a part-time church paycheck and a graduate school stipend. I also know we’ll need a decent income in the future to pay off the educational debt.)
As a feminist, too, I believe that women’s work in the church needs to be seen for what it is: valuable, legitimate WORK, as worthy of pay as any man’s.
My question, though, relates to whether we’re buying in too quickly to dominant models of work and pay. Is pastoral ministry best thought of as a professional role, with rates of pay objectively related to qualifications, years of experience, and time put in each week? If two partners minister in a local church, is it only fair that both be “compensated” by this pay, irrespective of need? Does time worked = money earned / deserved, to be used at the discretion of this couple? Is church ministry, like other professional jobs, deserving of a paycheck, while domestic labor–the work of keeping a house, caring for a family, creating spaces of hospitality (all of which take much more work when one attempts to live more justly in a global context)–is not?
I’m wondering whether churches, as sites of alternative economies of love, alternative economies of grace, ought to also espouse alternative economies of finance, alternative understandings of work. Does a solid paycheck grant legitimacy to labor? Should it? Should two-partnered households need two paychecks? Should pay for professional ministry be understood as earned wages, or should it be understood as the church’s fair provision for the needs of its ministers in order to free up their time to do the good work? How can we create models that are based less on consumption and performance, and more on equity, the valuation of all labor (including domestic), and whole-life missional living (including healthy rhythms of work and rest)? Finally, shouldn’t ALL followers of Jesus be living missional lives? Is a healthy community even possible if the work of ministry is always linked to pay? (I grapple with this: as the partner of an employed pastor with my own professional life, am I being taken advantage of in my work within the church, or am I just doing what all the rest of the community is or ought to be, living my life in the patterns of relationship, hospitality, and love?)
I’ve seen a number of alternative models. When we were living overseas, I observed one Christian missions agency that called for families to raise enough support to allow them to live missionally as a whole, so that the division of domestic labor and public “work” was a matter of discernment for the team and families. Whole-life missional living, which integrated family life and seasons of rest and retreat and relationships within the community, was made possible by an economic system that didn’t link wages to hours worked. Alternatively, this summer I observed a couple at a Catholic university, both of whom had MDivs from Notre Dame, who shared a 40-hour-per-week campus minister position. This salary allowed them full benefits (whereas two part-time positions might not), a livable income, and ample time to raise their growing family. It also granted both partners the respect of an official title.
These are complicated issues. I’m raising questions here, not proposing any answers. I’d love to hear other contributions to the conversation.
September 12th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Hey Cindy,
I love your questions and the complications you point out. As someone who has been a “volunteer” (i.e. unpaid) assistant pastor for the last few years, I definitely think that it’s okay for the work of ministry not to be linked to pay. I and another assistant pastor before me happened to be in a financial situation where our needs were more or less taken care of through other means (outside job/spouse). I also love your idea of alternative economies, finding ways to provide for ministers that account for their needs but isn’t linked to “professionalism” or moving up a ladder, etc.
What I think is so problematic is when adequate provision is NOT accounted for for a full time minister (and family), be it through a salary, stipend or otherwise, especially when what is being asked of a couple is above and beyond what anyone in that congregation would be willing to give of themselves because the provisional allowance is so low. I am thinking about the family members in my example. What was given to them by the church was so incredibly low, it wasn’t even enough for them to live off of as a couple (and I think they both tried to find outside work) yet they were at the same time putting in a crazy amount of hours and their family life and health suffered for it. I like your alternative suggestions–1 income shared (when that income really does provide for basic needs of a family) and an acknowledgement that both partners are equally respected and valued contributors to the ministry. I think perhaps all of this (equal acknowledgement, value, respect and adequate provision) was not present in the example of my original post.
On a more personal note, in our own church system we have often begun paying staff at the point in which they would have to leave to find work elsewhere. When what they were contributing was so valuable and our senior pastor was faced with losing them or paying them, he chose to pay them so they could continue on. We are a fairly young church, so there’s a short history of this pattern, and the pattern probably exists, in part, because of our new-ness and lack of ready financial resources to simply hire on anyone when we feel the need. I don’t know that how it has happened is necessarily something I would prescribe; I have not been a part of the decision-making process. But there definitely have been payment decisions made in response to real-time needs that our ministers have had (i.e. they have to get a paying job so they can make rent, and therefore wouldn’t be as available for ministry work).
Interestingly, after I had my third child a few months ago, I knew that I would not have all the same resources to volunteer as I did before unless I was receiving some sort of provision from the church. For one thing, I simply needed to pay for child care in order to attend meetings, etc. On the other hand, my husband and I now needed me to contribute to our joint finances in some, albeit small, way. This is when I became another staffperson to say that I would have to step down unless I could be paid, which was not an easy conversation for me to initiate. Now, had I stepped down, I would still have been giving/involved/serving, but in a reduced capacity that reflected my resources in time and money now that family had created further demands on me.
It was actually quite hard for me to have the conversation. Asking for money or presenting those needs in a ministry situation seems risky. It’s easy for motives to be misjudged (i.e. greed, materialism, etc). But I knew that it was simply a truth that my continued involvement at the degree I was serving required some sort of provisional allowance, and needed to be fair and respect the contribution I was making.
Well, that’s my story. I, too, do not have any answers for how this should look across the board, but these are definitely issues worth wrestling with. Thanks so much for adding to the conversation!
September 16th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
I like the idea of alternative economies which presupposes an honest look at what ministry life is truly like for families. Where I see the church failing is when it hires a man to officially work 35 hours a week (so they don’t legally have to provide benefits) – expect him to give at least 60 and for his wife to put in at least full time as well and then don’t pay a wage that people can live on. That family has no time or energy left to find other work, or flit around fundraising. And the wife isn’t even deemed worthy enough to be acknowledged for her work (although they will be “punished” if she doesn’t do the job she didn’t sign up for).
For me it does come down to honesty. If the church needs to stop trying to hire like the rest of the world then so be it, but that will also mean that it needs to stop guilting people into working themselves ragged to the point where they can’t physically or emotionally survive.
September 19th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Julie and Heather, I think you’re both so right. Our stories show so much dysfunction and a bizarre form of greed (is it that?) and inequity (it’s certainly that) in many churches. Julie, I really like this idea of honesty: honesty, first of all, about what we are asking of / expecting from / implying about pastoral leadership (and gender dynamics and family life). Second, I think this idea of honesty challenges us on whether our systems are sustainable: is the truth that our churches need much more labor than congregations are willing to pay for, with both time and money? What does this say about ministry, church structures, and finances?
September 28th, 2010 at 8:14 am
Thanks for this conversation, sisters!
I see several things here that raise concerns for me which can and need to be addressed by those of us called to ministry — and they all have to do with boundaries. When we interview for a church position, we need to be clear that they are only hiring one person for the job, not our spouses/partners, too. This is our responsibility to clarify. “Rob” should never have agreed to “Megan’s” free work. If she chooses to volunteer – great! And if she chooses to stop volunteering – thank her for what she has given.
Any pastor who is working 60 hours a week at one job is setting themselves and their successors up for failure. This is because the pastor can’t keep that pace AND when the next person ONLY works 50 hours, folks will wonder what’s wrong with them. Keeping Sabbath and resting is a commandment and I cannot be faithful and work overtime. The hours I work are my responsibility to maintain. I must be disciplined about only working a responsible number of hours and taking all the time I have (days off, comp time, vacation, continuing education).
If we serve churches who have unreasonable expectations, then we have a responsibility to start that conversation. “How many hours are expected?” “Who will pick up the tasks that are beyond these hours?” Plus all the great questions raised in the other posts.
FYI — Heather, I used to serve churches in IC and Cedar Rapids
Blessings, y’all, Susan
February 28th, 2011 at 6:19 am
I thank you, too, for starting this conversation. Half a year later, I see a need to bring it to local churches and workplaces.
This sort of thing happens in the secular world more than may be readily apparent. I once worked at an alumni directory publishing company where to avoid punishment for “laziness” or “unproductivity,” you basically had to put in 60-hour weeks, or enlist the aid of family members to analyze reports for you at home. (I didn’t, and reaped the consequences.)
Many, many workers toil for less than a living wage. Yes, we have a responsibility to advocate for ourselves. But we also have a responsibility not to turn a blind eye to the plight of others.
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