The Lead

A comparison of a study by the White House with a study by the Church Pension Fund reveals that the disparity in pay between male and female clergy in the Episcopal Church mirrors the rest of the United States.

Mary Frances Schjonberg writes for the Episcopal News Service:

Data in "Women in America," a statistical portrait released March 1 by the White House, show that women earned about 75 percent of what their male counterparts earned in 2009.
"Called to Serve," a Church Pension Fund study of clergy women and their families released in late January, found that women earned $45,656 on average compared with an average for male clergy of $60,773, or 75 percent.

There are 5,542 ordained women in the Episcopal Church, including 12 bishops, and 12,464 male clergy.

"Despite the presence of women clergy in the church for over thirty years, there are still significant gaps when comparing compensation and years of service between male and female clergy, pointing to the significant obstacles that women clergy face," Matthew Price, Church Pension Group vice president and director of analytical research, wrote in the report's introduction.

"Women's ministry also takes place in a wider society that influences and constrains what women can do," said Price of the other study's findings. "Family roles that still place on women primary responsibility for the raising of children and the care of elderly parents constrain the opportunities that women have to pursue opportunities in ministry."

The study was based on research conducted during the 2006-2009 triennium and provides a new understanding of the challenges, career patterns, constraints, and overall welfare and wellness of clergy women, the release said.

In the fall of 2008, 4,500 ordained women in the Episcopal Church -- and 1,500 male clergy – were invited to answer questions about their aspirations, needs, and experience of how ministry is lived out through their lives. Researchers had incomplete contact information for about 1,000 additional female clergy, Price told Episcopal News Service, but widely publicized the effort and any clergywoman who contacted researchers and updated her contact information received the survey.

The Pension Fund conducted the survey in collaboration with the Executive Council's Committee on the Status of Women, the Church Pension Fund's Office of Research, the Episcopal Church Center's Office of Women's Ministry, and CREDO Institute Inc.

More background about the survey is included in the report's introduction.

Comments (6)

You'd think the church would do better than the culture - but no -- what else is new?

Posted by Ann Fontaine | March 4, 2011 9:17 PM

The White House's comparison isn't apples-to-apples and such comparisons that make it easy to dismiss male-female differentials. What you'd like are comparisons that come closer to identifying discrimination by showing women are paid less for the same work, or are closed out of opportunities because they are women. In fact women have largely closed the real gap because brawn is becoming less valued in today's economy, brain more valued, and women are more likely to pursue the education necessary for the jobs in today's economy.

The Pension Fund study comes closer to such a comparison. Pending further study it concludes that some the differential is from differences in the kinds of posts women seek, and some is due to the bias of congregations not willing to hire women.

Posted by John B. Chilton | March 4, 2011 9:47 PM

And women being willing to take a lesser salary to get any job.

Posted by Ann Fontaine | March 4, 2011 10:03 PM

And the church does not have to follow the equal pay laws.

Posted by Ann Fontaine | March 4, 2011 10:04 PM

Seems to me that one factor could be that women tend (or at least used to tend) to be older at the time of ordination, shortening the available timeline for "promotion" to more senior positions.

Also, while I suspect the 12,464 male clergy are probably relatively evenly spread across age and length of ordination demographics, I think it possible that the 5,542 female clergy would skew older overall on the age demographic and shorter over all on the length of ordination demographic.

If I'm correct, then even a fair system would, on a blank comparison, show women earning less than men.

And even if discrimination against female clergy were rapidly declining and the stained glass ceiling rapidly rising, there would still be a time lage between a perfectly sex-blind employment state and an evening of remuneration.

All that said, I have no doubt that there is a stained glass ceiling. I just think these numbers need more crunching to determine the current severity of the problem.

I've noted in these parts that a disproportional number of our non-stipendiaries are women, and that of the stipendiaries, the women have (in the past at least) been more likely to be working at less than 100% stipend. (Though currently, apparently, it is a 50-50 split.)

Posted by Malcolm French+ | March 4, 2011 11:07 PM

There are long term ramifications for women in TEC - precisely b/c pensions are based on a formula of compensation packages. So, men in retirement do so with greater financial comfort. Women, on the other hand - especially those who were first ordained 30 years ago - can not even consider early retirement.

Shame on the church.

Posted by Elizabeth Kaeton | March 5, 2011 9:42 AM

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