Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast
“5 Key Salary and Compensation Trends in Large Churches and Ministries“
March 3, 2025
Susan Griffith Byers
Intro: Are you paying your church or ministry staff enough to keep them engaged and thriving? Well, many Christian organizations are falling behind on compensation, struggling to keep up with inflation while retaining top talent. And in this episode, we dive into the latest trends, biblical principles, and practical strategies to build a compensation philosophy that honors both mission and people.
Welcome: Welcome to the Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast, your home for open, honest, and insightful conversations to help develop your leadership, your team, and build a flourishing workplace culture.
Al Lopus: Hi, I’m Al Lopus, the co-founder of the Best Christian Workplaces and author of Road to Flourishing, the go-to, research-driven, Christ-centered guide to building a thriving workplace culture. You know, my passion is to equip Christian leaders like you to create engaged, flourishing workplaces, where people thrive and organizations make a Kingdom impact. And if you'd like to learn more about me, my book, opportunities to speak, the podcast, or recent articles I've written, I invite you to visit allopus—that’s A-L-L-O-P-U-S—dot org. Let’s journey together toward building workplaces where your faith, leadership, and organization flourish.
Well, today I’m delighted to welcome Susan Griffith Byers to the podcast. She's the founder of Church Compensation Services.
Throughout our conversation, you'll hear Susan share about key compensation trends in churches and ministries, including how organizations are addressing inflation and retaining top talent; biblical principles that provide a foundation for fair and effective compensation strategies; practical insights on developing clear compensation philosophies that align with your mission and values; and best practices for communicating salary and benefits that build trust and engagement with your team.
I think you're going to love this interview with Susan Griffith Byers. But before we dive in, this podcast is proudly sponsored by the Best Christian Workplaces’ Employee Engagement Survey, the largest Christ-centered employee-engagement survey available. Don’t wait. This month is the perfect time to gather vital insights from your employees to assess the health of your workplace culture. As today's guest shares, compensation and benefits are critical, attracting and retaining top talent, but they must be clearly communicated and aligned with your organization's mission. So without understanding how your organizations truly feel about their work experience, even the best compensation strategies may fall short. Ready to transform your culture? Well, visit workplaces.org to learn more and to start your journey toward a flourishing workplace today.
Hello to our new listeners. And thanks for joining us as we honor your investment of time by creating valuable episodes like this.
So, let’s talk a little bit more, and let me introduce you to Susan Griffith Byers. She began her career in compensation more than 25 years ago, with much of her career at a leading human-resources consulting firm. She's consulted with many fortune 500 companies, including Coca-Cola, McDonald's, even Harley Davidson, as well as large, not for profits and health care and higher education. She founded the Church Compensation Services, which specializes in developing compensation programs utilizing the most relevant, reliable, and robust compensation data available for large and growing churches.
So, here’s my conversation with Susan Griffith Byers.
Susan, it’s great to have you back on the podcast. I’m looking forward to our conversation today.
Susan Griffith Byers: Thank you, Al. I appreciate the invitation. It’s my absolute pleasure to join you and your listeners again to discuss the topic of compensation.
Al: Yeah. This is an important topic, Susan. And, you know, I appreciate our relationship over the years as you've worked and become the leader of church compensation and providing great information to larger churches.
You know, so you're an expert in the field of compensation, and you have your finger on the pulse of what's happening in churches and other ministries as you have worked each year with your compensation surveys. So, we also know that inflation is really an issue for church workers and Christian workplaces overall. What trends are you seeing in 2025 as far as salary increases and total-compensation packages, including health-care benefits, PTO, and other components? What are you seeing, Susan?
Susan: Well, inflation has indeed been a concern since COVID, and while it stabilized somewhat in the last year or so, the overall rate of inflation since 2021 neared 20%. And according to our most recent Church Compensation Services’ report on pay programs, church salaries have only increased about 15% during that same time period, leaving a 5% gap. And according to that same report, churches are planning to increase salaries about 3.6% in 2025. And while this is above the current inflation rate of 3%, it still doesn't keep employees whole.
So some organizations utilize a portion of their salary-increase budget for market adjustments that target specific dollars at employees who are considerably below market and potential flight risks. In addition to the attempt to increase their salaries, churches who participated in our benefits survey appear to be absorbing the vast majority of rising health-insurance costs for their employees and families, with an average employer increase of about 7.6% last year. They also offer generous paid-time-off benefits, with an average of 25 days during the first year of employment and up to 32 days after 10 years of employment. And one church even reported offering unlimited time off for employees, which is a trend we're hearing about more in other organizations as well. And while participation in retirement plans is optional, they are prevalent amongst many churches and Christian organizations, and they're a good way to help employees leverage an additional 3 to 5% in pay through the employer matches. And about one quarter of churches also reported offering up to $10,000 in tuition reimbursement per year.
So, churches and Christian organizations are utilizing many of the same total-rewards programs available at for-profit companies to attract and retain the talent they need to keep things moving forward and close that inflation gap.
Al: Wow. Susan, you've given us a lot of data here already, just right off the bat.
So we're behind when it comes to salary increases in churches. We’re behind true inflation since COVID. So a 5% gap you mentioned. Okay.
So, I remember when employees starting out, a generous benefit was two weeks of vacation. That would be, like, 10 days a year. Then, after five years, you'd have three weeks of vacation, and, you know, all the way up to, like, 15 days a year. But you're saying for churches, often there's a starting vacation of 25 days? Did I understand that right?
Susan: Well, it's more of an all-inclusive paid time off.
Al: Paid time off. Okay.
Susan: So that could include—yes.
Al: Yeah.
Susan: It could include vacation, sick time, holiday pay. So it’s a combination of approaches. And no church does it all the same way, but that’s on average what it equates to, about 22 days off per year, with pay.
Al: And I like what you're saying about tuition reimbursement, because leadership development is such an important factor, uplifting growth, as we call it, and up to 10,000 in tuition reimbursements per year. And you said what? That's about 20-some percent of churches offer that?
Susan: Yes. Almost a quarter of churches reported some level of tuition reimbursement, up to about 10,000, which does help, you know, with, like you said, the development of employees and their promotional opportunities, so future earning increases.
Al: Susan, you've been a key contributor to the chapter on rewarding compensation in my book, Road to Flourishing, and I really appreciated your insights. And one of the things we talked about was the importance of having a compensation philosophy. So what are some of the key components that leaders of churches and Christian organizations—what should they consider as they're developing a cohesive or coherent compensation philosophy? Give us a little tutorial on that.
Susan: Sure. Well, and most importantly, a compensation philosophy should align with the mission and vision of the organization. And to do that, leaders need to answer some questions like, what is the strategy and purpose of the organization? What's the demographic of the population we serve? Where do we hire our staff? What organizations do we consider similar to ours, and how do we want to pay in comparison? Another consideration, how much of our budget can we afford to spend on compensation? And do we want to differentiate pay for performance? These are just a few questions to consider when developing a compensation philosophy. And from there, craft a strategy with programs and methodologies that align to the philosophy.
So, for example, churches serving an affluent community of doctors, lawyers, and CEOs will have a very different compensation philosophy from an inner-city church that's focused on outreach to the homeless and marginalized in their community. Their priorities will be very different, which, then, impacts their compensation philosophy. In a rural church in the South, with a lower cost of living, will have a very different compensation philosophy from a church in a large metropolitan area on the West Coast, even if they share the same annual budget, as the cost of salaries are very different in those geographic locations.
On a personal note, my husband’s a pastor and has worked in different roles for many different types and locales of churches over the last 37 years—large and small, urban and rural, denominational and nondenominational—and his pay reflects those differences. Back in 2018 he accepted a position as a senior pastor at a small rural church in Montana, making what he earned as a youth pastor right out of Bible college.
So I say all this to reinforce that churches should look like the communities they serve, and their pay philosophy should reflect that.
Al: Yeah. Right. You mentioned this 5% gap and pay philosophies and strategies. And so if a church were to address this 5% gap between what inflation has been and what increases their staff has received since COVID, they're not going to say, “Well, we need to make a 5% difference, like, year one.” Would you recommend that they look at a three-year strategy for possibly making up the gap between that?
Susan: Definitely. You know, a multi-year approach is beneficial, especially when budgeting and looking for those funds. They’re not usually sitting around readily available. So if you have a multi-year approach, you can spread those dollars out over time that, you know, with the annual increases, merit cost of living. Whatever other budgeted dollars that they might have at hand will help to attack that problem and eventually catch up over time.
We're not seeing any type of really large investments in trying to bridge that gap. I think some of the uncertainty with the economy may be playing into that, too, as well. So as long as there's a plan to eventually close the gap and address the issues that are really critical at the moment, where there may be flight risks or significantly below market pay, it will eventually catch up, I’m hoping.
Al: Yeah. And Susan, give us an idea. I know you work with a lot of large and intermediate-size churches. Give us an idea of what the size of your database is at this point.
Susan: That's a great question. We have currently in the 2024 reports combined, we have about 150 large churches that participate, and the total budget size is in the billions when we add all of it together. So there's a lot of money, a lot of employees’ pay a stake that's being represented in the data for large churches. It's a great resource to compare.
Al: Yeah. Thanks. I mean, that’s a great database. Absolutely. Wow.
And I’m just curious. Susan, when I started the Best Christian Workplaces back in 2002, there was not very much differentiation for pay for performance in churches. It would be common that if there was a—just as easier, this year's number of 3.5% increase, everybody would get the same increases. I would call it like spreading peanut butter across a slice of bread. There wasn't any differentiation for performance or even position and range or competitiveness. Are you seeing a trend, a continuing trend, to pay for performance?
Susan: You know, it's about 50/50, and some use a combination of both. So there are still quite a few churches that have budgeted cost-of-living adjustments, but an equal number are looking at pay for performance.
I think one of the challenges is measuring performance. So if you have a measurement system that fairly assesses performance, then it's a little easier to differentiate pay. Sometimes I think hard conversations just aren't something that church leaders want to have, so it's easier to address across the board rather than really talk about performance. But it is important to be rewarded—the hard work that is done by key staff, that it's rewarded appropriately.
Al: I've always found it attracts and retains your top performers when you do differentiate based on that.
Susan: Yeah. Absolutely.
Al: Yeah.
Well, speaking of communication and the importance of it, one of the important areas of compensation is providing clear communication to help employees understand their compensation package and the value of their benefits. So along with the salary, what are some of the best practices you see in organizations that do a good job of communicating about salary and benefits?
Susan: Well, first, I agree. Communicating the value of employee compensation and benefits is a challenge, though, for many organizations, both large and small. An organization can invest millions of dollars into their employees each year to attract, retain, and engage them. But if they don't communicate the value in a way that employees understand, it will not yield the intended results. And if your compensation and benefits programs are so complicated that even the most-seasoned employee can't understand what they need to do to earn more money, your communication efforts will be futile.
So partner with your communications team to prepare brochures, intranet landing pages, videos, and other forms of media that explain your compensation and benefit programs. And with that, prepare just-in-time communications when each program is released, like merit or cost-of-living adjustments or market adjustments. So you're using each opportunity to reinforce the compensation philosophy and explaining why employees are paid how they are.
And there are many external marketing organizations ready to help with these. They have affordable graphic designers and instructional video-creation services. So even if you don't have a communications department in-house, you can easily find someone that can help you with that outside.
You know, I just also add that many organizations utilize external web pages for their benefits information, and this helps with potential candidates and family members of current employees being able to access that. So, you know, they may even mail things with the old U.S. Post Office to make sure that family members receive benefit information firsthand, because a benefit is not a benefit if the employer or their family doesn't know it's available or how to access it when they need it.
Lastly, I'll just say another critical form of communication is equipping your leaders with the knowledge they need to reinforce a consistent message to employees. So partner with your learning and development team to incorporate compensation education into new leader training, because even experienced leaders need to understand your organization's compensation philosophy, your programs, your processes, your methodologies, as no two organizations are exactly the same, and you don't want to leave them guessing or giving incorrect information to employees. So equip them with the messages that you want them to share.
Al: And to our listeners, let me—please, take those words to heart. You don't want your front-line manager saying, “Well, I'd personally give you more compensation, a bigger salary increase, but the president or HR won't let me give you more, even though you deserve it.” I mean, you don't want that going on in your organization. But, yeah, so training is really important and having people understand why it is that they're receiving the pay that they are.
So, Susan, this is really fascinating. I’d like to come back to the question that I asked you a little earlier from a different direction, and that is that some organizations are giving, still, raises across the board, and others are giving more of a merit structure, a merit or a combination of both, as you mentioned. Let me ask you about biblical principles that you might apply to salary and compensation. I mean, this is a Christian-leadership podcast. So what are some of the biblical principles that you apply to salary and compensation that our listeners might rely on or be interested in? How does merit pay fit into a compensation philosophy as leaders seek to retain top employees?
Susan: Well, there's so many Scriptures related to money, compensation, rewards, recompense in the Bible, and it is our manual for life. There's a few passages that I love. Certainly, this is not an all-inclusive list. But Hebrews 11:6 says, God's a rewarder of those who diligently pursue Him. And rewards come in different forms. God rewards those who pursue Him very differently than how we're rewarded at work, but we are rewarded for the contribution and value we bring to the organization that we serve. And you know, another name for compensation and benefits is rewards.
So another Scripture, Proverbs 14:23, all hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. Again, reinforcing that performance message. And Revelation 22:12, Jesus said, “Behold, I'm coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to each one according to the merit of his or her deeds.” And while Jesus probably isn't talking about money here, He does establish the fact that He rewards based on the merit of each of our deeds, and money is how we're paid for work in this life.
And, you know, how about the parable of the talents in Matthew 25? Jesus said, for the Kingdom of heaven will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants or employees and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to another, one; to each according to his ability. And the master praised the servants who doubled the talents they were given. But to the one who buried his talent in the ground, he was called wicked, and his talent was taken away from him and given to one of the others. And this Scripture has so many meanings, but I see the interpretation of differentiating pay for performance. And the Bible clearly shows that we're accountable for our actions. And while there's generosity and provision for the poor, the widows, and the orphans, the Word does differentiate pay based on performance. And I believe it's part of the blessing of the Lord.
Al: Susan, that’s great. Thanks for those Scriptures. Yeah. Hebrews 11:1; Proverbs 14:23; Revelation 22:12. I hadn't really picked up on the Revelation example, but, boy, that's based on merit at the end of each of our deeds. That's really appropriate. And then, of course, Matthew 25. And then, there's another Scripture saying that don't muzzle the ox, as I recall.
Susan: Right. Yeah.
Al: Yeah. There’s another one.
Susan: The worker is worth his wages.
Al: Yeah.
Susan: That's one that I love, too.
Al: Yeah. Yeah. So, lots of biblical underpinning for what we're talking about.
So, over time, especially as we've seen in this inflation environment, we can see salary compression. You know, that's where entry-level salaries have gone up, and they push up against salary ranges for mid-level roles like managers or experienced workers. So what are some strategies to avoid salary compression at the lower end, and how can you deal with them when it does happen, Susan?
Susan: Yeah. That's a good point. And I think we've seen a lot of that recently with the living wage and with some of the minimum wages increased at the state level. But first, you have to ensure you have a proper salary range in place, a salary structure. Those salary ranges are the guardrails for pay, that include a minimum, a midpoint, a maximum, that just align with the external market as well as your internal hierarchy. And a good practice is to evaluate your jobs every year or two, and adjust structures and ranges according to keep them current. As we know, the market and living wage moves differently for each job over the years. But then—and this may sound overly simple—pay employees within the range. You know, above the minimum and below the maximum, based on the employee’s experience, value, contribution, scarcity of the talent or skills that they've acquired, and do that relative to the midpoint or market value of the job.
So, for example, a high performer may be paid low in the range, they would typically receive a high percentage of annual merit budget. And likewise, an average performer paid high range, we would expect to receive a lower percentage of the merit budget. This is where that pay for performance comes in as well, so that everyone isn't just increasing at the same rate. And this helps to temper cushion imbalance internal equity.
But if someone remains in the same job for, say, 20 years, their pay will eventually reach the maximum range. And rather than allowing their base pay to continue to grow, a best practice would be to cap or red circle them, we call it, and pay a lump sum in lieu of an annual merit increase until the market salary range goes up or the employer promotes to a higher-level role.
Lastly, you know, I'd mention, too, that if we have too many levels in the job hierarchy, that can also create some compression. And an organization's job framework or their architecture should align with the market and reflect an appropriate number of levels for each family.
But let's face it, there may be special situations where compression is inevitable, and you may need to hire a uniquely qualified candidate at a higher rate and just know that it will cause compression with the direct manager. So you have a few options in those situations. You can either live with it, especially if the manager was involved in the offer decision and is aware of the unique situation. They may have been advocating to hire this person for a special need. Or you could increase the manager's pay to prevent the compression from happening, or you could change the reporting structure altogether to avoid it. And while none of these are ideal, there are unique situations that warrant higher pay that can cause compression. So it's not ideal, but it's not forbidden. It does occasionally occur.
Al: Yeah. Right.
Now, Susan, one of the things that you mentioned earlier is job families. And we're hearing a lot of interest in creating job families as people kind of progress in their knowledge and their performance in a specific job. Give us an idea of how job families are structured from a compensation standpoint, and maybe what some of the differentials would be from one level of a job family to another.
Susan: Sure. So let's use communications maybe as a job family example. And that's pretty prevalent. You may start with a communications coordinator. You could have an editor, writer, designer in those individual contributor roles, and then maybe a communications manager and a director and even someone at a higher level than that, that might be over more than just employee communications or customer marketing, but maybe public relations and some other things like that. And so with any family, you would expect the differential between the lower-level jobs to be smaller so that employees can promote more quickly. Maybe in two or three years they would be able to promote to a higher-level role. And as you get higher in the organization, those differentials would increase. So maybe it’s 8 to 12 percent at the bottom; 10, 15, even 25 percent in leadership positions; and you would expect that they would stay in those roles for longer periods of time. So you want the ranges to be wider so they have more opportunity to grow within those jobs.
We see a big jump, then, between, say, an executive pastor—and we're talking about a different family now in pastoral—and the senior pastor. But that's an exception to what we're talking about here. You can expect, you know, a progressive differential from lower-level positions to higher-level positions in that family to keep them growing and moving at a quicker pace in the beginning and then slowing down near the higher-level roles.
Al: Right. Yeah. And as I recall, you also provide salary structures for those that participate in your survey. And so you just described a typical salary structure would have narrow ranges at the bottom, wider ranges at the top, and then increasing percentages between the lower-level jobs and the more of the high-level jobs. So tell us a little bit about the way you create salary structures for your subscribers.
Susan: Sure. So we use the data from the surveys. So for all the participants, the churches that report data, we establish market ranges for each of the jobs. And then, we build a structure around that, from lowest to highest, with those midpoint progressions increasing as it goes up, as the jobs go higher, and then, the range spreads, increasing as they go wider. And we create structures for different-sized organizations. So based on the data, we have five different budget cuts less than 5 million, 5.2—and I'm going to probably get it wrong, but we have more information on our website about this—5 to 7.5 million, 7.5 to 12.5 million, and then 12.5 to 18, and then above 18. We want to make sure that we’re focusing on similarly sized churches and not, you know, comparing apples to oranges. So those are available.
We also modify those based on geographic location because we know salaries are very different in different geographic locations. So it's customized to the church, their size, and the jobs that they have in their organization.
Al: Oh, that’s fantastic. Thanks, Susan.
Well, let’s talk about salary discussions and negotiations, and particularly as you’re involved in the hiring process. I know our managers, leaders are in those kinds of discussions probably even now. So what sort of transparency do you suggest to leaders as they bring on new staff and decide how to fit them into the compensation program? I know there's a lot of talk about this in corporate circles; and in different states, there's different rules. So how would you suggest that leaders handle salary negotiations and what they communicate up front?
Susan: Yes. Well, as you mentioned, pay transparency has become a hot topic over the past few years, as many states have passed laws requiring employers to report the salary range for posted positions. And that definition of a salary range can be translated in different ways, including the expected range of pay, the actual salary range for the job, or just the range of actual pay for employees in the job. So the reported salary range can be very misleading, and organizations need to be prepared to explain the salary range and what that means for a new hire or an existing employee's actual pay. If a current incumbent sees their salary range in a job posting for the first time and they're paid at the bottom end of that range, it could result in complaints; escalations; or worse, they may quit. So before any transparency, organizations need to ensure their salary ranges are accurate and employees are paid appropriately within the established range.
And as we just discussed, we can certainly help with that at Church Compensation Services. We also include a complementary costing analysis if you participate and share your data.
So, you know, what if you're in a state that doesn't have a pay-transparency law? We still want to make sure that you have accurate salary ranges and that you're paying people appropriately within those salary ranges based on their experience, the value they bring to the organization, their contribution, and the scarcity of the talent or the skills that they have. And that means employees with minimal experience should be near the bottom of the range, and high performers with significant experience at the top half of the range. And fully competent employees we would expect to be paid at market, or that means within 10% of the midpoint plus or minus.
But salary negotiations are somewhat of a dance, especially in states that have outlawed questions around pay history. But a good approach is to ask candidates their salary expectations and compare that to the salary range and the experience they bring. In Texas, where I live and work, it is still lawful to ask a candidate what they're currently making, and I would expect it would take at least 10 to 15% to get someone to leave their tenure and sense of “security” at their current organization to take a new position at another organization. So I factor that into our guidelines. And I would also anticipate the same 10 to 15% increase for an internal promotion.
But the bottom line is the salary range reflects the value of the job, and the base salary should consider the candidate's experience, and again, value, contribution, scarcity of talent, as well as the geographic locale, and related costs of salaries and internal equity whenever an offer is calculated. Be aware that bringing someone in at a higher rate than a long-tenured high performer will cause issues down the road. So use caution in those situations and have a plan to address the potential compression if needed.
Al: Absolutely. For our leaders that are listening, yeah, bringing a new employee in above a current employee who's a high performer is going to cause trouble. I think we've all experienced that. And I love your thoughts here around promotion increase should be a 10 to 15% increase, just to indicate that is an important point in their career, and you recognize that the new job is important. And also, let me just make the comment that when you're trying to attract an employee from a high-performing and a best Christian workplace, you're going to have to offer them more than just a 15%—it's more like a 20%—increase over their current rate of pay. And as you pointed out, Susan, yeah, some states it's not kosher—if I can use that word—ask what their current pay is. But your advice is really good. And to just talk about what is your salary expectation. Yeah. So yeah. Great, Susan. Thanks.
Well, as new generations enter the workforce, some of them might have different priorities than previous generations. I know as a boomer talking with millennials and Gen Zs, it's a different time, and we had different expectations currently that I had joining the workforce. So what do you see as the future regarding compensation and benefits, Susan? Give us your insights.
Susan: Yes, definitely. And I'm going to show my age here, too, Al. I am a boomer as well, albeit one of the very youngest boomers, the very tail end of the baby-boomer generation. But I recognize differences between these generations when it comes to work and compensation. And one of the most noticeable differences I see with Gen Z is the increase in the number of what I call gig workers, and in health care they're referred to PRN, or as needed. And these gig workers are employees who might not work, maybe at a given week, or could work up to full time 40 hours in some weeks. But they typically earn a higher hourly rate than full-time employees because they aren't guaranteed hours, and they aren't eligible for employee benefits or incentives.
And we've seen this in churches for a long time. The employees who work only Sunday morning, like musicians or baristas or child-care workers, but this practice is becoming more prevalent outside the church as well. And, you know, it could be for many reasons. One, maybe the availability of national health care, so they're not dependent on full-time employment. And we also know many working-age Gen Zers are still living with their parents. But regardless, employers are embracing these gig workers as they need to fill the gap of hourly workers who left the workforce during and after COVID.
Another difference is their mobility or frequent job change. Previously, in my generation, job hopping every couple of years was a black mark on a resume. But that's become normalized and part of upward mobility. And so, many in this newer workforce have high expectations to reach management within, say, I don't know, three years and an executive position within five years. And oftentimes, they must leave their current organization to meet those career expectations. To retain high potentials, employers must invest in development programs and define clear career paths if they want to keep this generation of workers.
But I think one of the best differences about these younger generations is they're motivated by the mission more than the money, oftentimes, not all. They want a cause, not just a career. And this has been prevalent within the church since Jesus walked the Earth. And this generation of workers is bringing the mission to the forefront, even outside of the church. So smart employers offer one or two days of paid time off each year specifically for volunteering at a charitable organization. But churches and Christian organizations offer that value to their employees every day. So it’s worth more than compensation, and we don’t want to lose sight of that when negotiating salaries or communicating your compensation philosophy to your employees.
Al: As leaders who are listening, I encourage you not to develop the reputation where the only way a person can get a good salary increase is to leave your organization and join another one. And Susan, you've made that point where it's important for people that are high performers, that have also great expectations, that you recognize them and reward them on a regular basis.
Now, many organizations will vary the timing on salary increases instead of just once a year. But what do you see in churches in terms of the timing of salary increases?
Susan: In churches, it's probably more frequent than not to see an annual increase. Usually, it's a common date. It's not based on your hire date. You know, the larger the organization, the more challenging it is to have the very different compensation programs that are year round. So just from an efficiency perspective, it's typically once a year. We do see sometimes that there may be a merit increase at one point in the year, and then six months later, a market adjustment may go into effect. But again, that's probably more outside the church than inside, but it is a great practice, especially if you're trying to close that inflation gap and make sure that your employees are paid appropriately to market.
Al: Great.
Well, Susan, this has just been a great conversation. Thanks so much for all of the information that you've given us. Going back to even including some of the trends that we currently are seeing, the 5% gap between salary increases that people have experienced in churches versus inflation over the last three or four years. The market adjustments in 2025 at 3.5%. The changes in health insurance and how churches are kind of absorbing that 7.6% increase in health-insurance costs and the PTO numbers that you've talked about. You've really given us great insights into creating a compensation philosophy and ways to communicate compensation to employees. The Scripture basis was fantastic. The Scripture basis behind a compensation philosophy, and discussions around job families, pay transparency, and communication, some of the future trends we see. And I'll say to our listeners, Susan, is reinforcing one of the trends that we've included in our January podcast of the 2025 trends in compensation and in the Christian workplace, and that's with gig workers is a big issue. And also, again, thanks for the issues around job mobility and in career paths and the importance of those. So, thanks so much.
Is there anything you'd like to add that we've talked about, Susan?
Susan: Well, Al, I’d just like to say how grateful I am for you and Best Christian Workplaces Institute and all your customers who strive to create a work culture that looks like Jesus. I believe our employees are our first customers, and if we take care of them, they will take care of those we serve. And your vision to have the best Christian workplaces is commendable. Thank you and your team for investing your expertise into the churches and Christian organizations you serve. It is so very important, and I'm glad to be a part of it today.
Al: Yeah. Well, thanks, Susan, so much for all of your contributions and especially all of this information today. And most of all, I appreciate your commitment as well to helping leaders have a thoughtful approach to rewarding compensation for their staff. So thanks for taking your time out today and speaking in the lives of so many listeners.
Susan: Thank you, Al. I appreciate the opportunity to share some of the compensation knowledge that I’ve gained over the last few decades. And if your listeners have any questions or would like to learn more about what we do at Church Compensation Services, they can visit us at churchcompensationservices.com and contact us with questions.
Al: Yeah. Thanks, Susan. And thanks for your work with the church.
Thanks so much for listening to my conversation with Susan Griffith Byers. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
You can find ways to connect with her and links to everything we discussed in the show notes and transcript at workplaces.org/podcast.
And if you have any suggestions for me about our podcast or have any questions on flourishing workplace cultures, please email me, al@workplaces.org.
And leaders, your people are your greatest asset. Are you investing in them wisely? Well, this conversation makes it clear: competitive compensation, clear communication, and a well-defined philosophy aren't just HR strategies; they're biblical principles of stewardship and care. A thriving workplace starts with valuing your team in ways that align with your mission and reflect God's heart for leadership. So assess your compensation strategy, listen to your employees, and ensure that your pay practices reflect both excellence and integrity. Your team's engagement, retention, and ministry impact depend on it.
And don't miss next week's episode because every great leader is always growing. Each conversation brings fresh insights, practical wisdom, and biblical encouragement to help you build a thriving, Christ-centered workplace. Whether it's leadership, culture, or strategy, you'll walk away with something valuable that you'll be able to apply right away. So stay tuned. You won’t want to miss next week’s podcast.
Outro: The Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast is sponsored by Best Christian Workplaces. If you need support building a flourishing workplace culture, please visit workplaces.org for more information.
We'll see you again next week for more valuable content to help you develop strong leaders and build a flourishing workplace culture.