Church Staff Salary Calculator
Churches that state yearly pay offered a median of $65,000 in the report read October 19, 2026. Pick a role and a state to see posted pay for your case, beside federal wage data.
This free tool is made by Church Posting.
Choose a role to see posted pay.
| Source | Data | Median | Low | High |
|---|
Posted pay by role, read October 19, 2026
These figures come from church postings with stated yearly pay in the 2026 Church Staff Salary Report. A range counts at its midpoint. A role row counts postings by the words in the title, so the counts are small, and a church board should treat each median as a description of those churches and not a market rate.
| Role | Lowest | Median | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior or lead pastor | $58,000 | $70,000 | $120,000 |
| Youth or student ministry | $48,000 | $55,000 | $85,000 |
| Worship pastor, leader or music director | $50,750 | $67,750 | $85,000 |
| Children's ministry or preschool | $15,000 | $63,500 | $74,500 |
| Executive pastor, administrator or finance | $51,500 | $100,000 | $125,000 |
| Technical, audio, video or media | $76,560 | $79,530 | $82,500 |
The calculator also reads the open jobs on the board. It uses open roles with stated yearly pay at build time. Most churches leave pay out of the posting, so the sample can be small. The calculator withholds a median when too few postings match.
Federal wage data for the same work
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wages by occupation, not by church role. Each role here is paired with the occupation that does the same work in any workplace, using May 2025 estimates. Pastors and ministry directors use the clergy and religious activities categories, which count religious workers only. The other roles count every employer, so a church hiring a sound technician competes with the whole market for sound technicians. The federal clergy figures leave out meal and lodging payments, so they can sit under what a church that provides housing really spends.
| Church role | Federal occupation | Workers | 10th percentile | Median | 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senior or lead pastor | Clergy (21-2011) | 57,200 | $37,860 | $60,810 | $98,890 |
| Associate, campus or executive-track pastor | Clergy (21-2011) | 57,200 | $37,860 | $60,810 | $98,890 |
| Youth or student ministry | Directors, Religious Activities and Education (21-2021) | 22,160 | $34,670 | $52,100 | $98,310 |
| Worship pastor, leader or music director | Music Directors and Composers (27-2041) | 12,540 | $39,880 | $73,710 | $165,760 |
| Children's ministry or preschool | Directors, Religious Activities and Education (21-2021) | 22,160 | $34,670 | $52,100 | $98,310 |
| Executive pastor, administrator or finance | Administrative Services Managers (11-3012) | 263,960 | $67,100 | $114,130 | $207,720 |
| Church secretary or office assistant | Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive (43-6014) | 1,706,790 | $33,280 | $47,540 | $66,350 |
| Technical, audio, video or media | Audio and Video Technicians (27-4011) | 70,230 | $37,990 | $58,100 | $100,650 |
| Communications or graphic design | Public Relations Specialists (27-3031) | 283,380 | $44,110 | $74,750 | $135,150 |
The full picture, with regional pay, state clergy wages and the report's method, is in the 2026 Church Staff Salary Report. If you are setting pay for a youth pastor or a worship leader, the youth pastor salary guide and the worship leader salary guide add survey data from those fields. Open roles are on the church job board.