How Much Do You Make?

I make $61,000 a year as a Youth Minister here in the City, not including benefits.

STOP!!

What was the first thought that ran through your head when you read that, honestly?

The truth is I do not make that much, not even close, but if I did what would you think about a YM with 8 years experience who made that as a salary? Would your church pay one of their ministers that much, and should they?

I am not interested in pro-rating the salary for YM, but I am intrigued by the rational of keeping our salaries hidden from the view of our peers, friends, or church. I remember as a kid one of the earliest rules we had in our household was not to talk about how much money our family made. Truthfully I had no idea how much my dad made as a Doctor, but I was old enough to understand that Doctors made a good living (and we had a Cadillac, Mercedes, and one of the first cell phones). But it was made very clear to me and my sister that we were not to talk about it to anyone, especially at church.

As I have come through young adulthood I am now at the point where it is really tacky, or at least thought of as rude, to ask or tell what a persons salary is. Up until now I never really questioned that, but in the September 26th issue of my New York Magazine they did a feature entitled "Salaries '05 Who Makes How Much". The article was fascinating and the side articles detailing information about all kinds of jobs and what their salary ranges are in NYC was equally intriguing (read here to compare your salary to what you would make in NYC).

As I was looking at the people with their salaries laid bare, I didn't find myself judging them, if anything I found myself saying "whoa, they should get a lot more than that for what they do.", or "whoa, that's ridiculous!". Never-mind I was judgmental. I will give you a small sampling from each of the various professions the magazine detailed. This is yearly take home pay without bonuses, perks, or benefits.

Business:
Henry Paulson Jr - Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs $29,789,359
Edgar Bronfman Jr. - CEO Warner Music Group $6,300,000
David Neeleman - Chairman CEO of JetBlue $286,971
Chris (last name withheld) - Panhandler, Bleecker and Broadway $24,000

Law:
Judy Sheindlin - Television Judge $30,000,000
Robert Morgenthau - District Attorney Manhattan $150,000
Josh Dubin - Jury Consultant $512,500

Broadway:
Sydney Davolos - General Manager, Roundabout Theater $100,000
Julia Roberts - Actress Three Days of Rain $1,829,000

Art:
Jeff Koons - Conceptual Artist $15,000,000
William Ruprecht - Director Sotheby's $2,000,000
Aristotle Stathatos - Security Guard at the MET $21,159

Music:
Mark Rosen - DJ $400,000
Diddy - Rapper, superhyphenate $36,000,000
Renee Flemming - Mezzo-Soprano Metropolitan Opera ($15,000 per performance) $135,000

Media:
Richard Johnson - Page six Gossip Columnist $300,000
Parakash Patel - Newstand operator $14,400
Jessica Coen - Blogger, Gawker.com $30,000

Government:
Mike Bloomberg - Mayor $1.00 (official Mayoral salary $195,000)
Gregory Burke - Private First Class, US Army stationed in Iraq (includes $130 monthly hazardous-duty fee) $18,444
Hillary Clinton - US Senator $162,100
Lori Lyons - Garbagewoman $48,996

Police and Fire:
Twenty - Fire Dog Ladder Co. 220 Free walks, food, and housing
Anthony Napolitano - Rookie Police Officer $36,878
Ray Kelly - Police Commissioner $162,800

Personal Services:
Jason Onserud - Personal Trainer $112,000
IIrene Nahon - Manicurist $30,000
Flower - Cocaine Dealer Lower Eastside $150,000

Education:
Randi Weingarten - President of UFT $223,656
Christina Annunziata - First Grade Teacher, Bronx PS $44,000
Jonathan Arak - SAT Prep, Princeton Review $120,000

Religion:
Edward Egan - Cardinal, Archdiocese of New York $18,000
Rev. Kevin Madigan - Catholic Priest $18,200
Imam Omar Abu-Namous - Head Islamic Cultural Center $4,200

Nonprofit:
Mary Sullivan - ED Coalition for the Homeless $152,893
Richard Lattis - General Director Wildlife Conservation Society $234,777
Joan Malin - CEO and Pres. Planned Parenthood $187,000

Real Estate:
Ramon Torres - Window Washer $45,428
Jose Felipe Gonzalez - Doorman, 455 CPW $37,313
Jennifer R. - First-year broker $350,000

Fashion:
Nate P. - Knock off bag street vendor $31,600
Eric Miranda - Sales Clerk GAP $30,000
Dylan Erickson - Male Model (started four months ago) $2,000
Gisele Biindehen - Supermodel $15,200,000

Food:
Alex Aguinaga - Delivery Person Fresh Direct $19,200
Eva Ferka - Reservationist Alto $30,000
Agim Seferi - Wait Captain, Cafe Gray $62,500

So that's just a small sampling of what was listed in each category, I even skipped the sports, movies, and TV since that's fairly familiar to all of us.

Money and Sex are top on the "issues we don't talk about at church" list. Yet so much of our lives revolve around the necessity of having money (and sex for that matter) that it seems kind of strange that we don't address it very often or very well.

It's easy enough to find out generally what a person makes, but specifics are harder to come by. Most churches present their annual budget to the congregation and include a bulk figure for the ministers pay. With simple division you could get a general idea of what the ministers make. I am certainly not going to say what I make for a number of reasons. The biggest of which is I don't want to be judged (or held accountable) by the way I spend, give, or waste my money. I also don't want people to assume things about me just because of the dollar figures attached to my IRS return.

But what if there was a way for everyone to honestly divulge their salary and then it could be looked at collectively as a church. Let's say a suburban church with 300 adult members has a total annual salary of $10,000,000 (that's every single person making $33,000 a year) - how would that influence things? How would we address the gap between the poor members and the wealthy ones (the poor in NYC make $.02 to every dollar the rich make, rich defined as more than $350,000 a year and poor less than $10,000 a year read here)? Kind of scary and promising all of the things that could come out of divulging a church's earning power would be.

Bringing it down to a more personal level. What if you knew what each of your friends made at their jobs, how would that change your relationship? When you all go out to eat and the money to pay for the check comes up short again, would you still be willing to throw in the extra couple of bucks, or would you think "Hey Jeff makes $20,000 more than I do, he can cover this." Something tells me that being more transparent with what we make and how we spend our money could be very beneficial to the community and church as a whole. There's accountability, support, investment (emotional), and fellowship in sharing each others burdens, and money can certainly be a burden. Also the pursuit of a bigger salary to buy more things at the expense of family, friends, spirituality, or other relationships is very tempting and sometimes can't be resisted.

It's times like that where it would be good to have someone who could say, "You know, you don't need that money, you think you do, but you don't. Let me show you why." Reality for me says that I don't care if perfect strangers knew what I made, or if my closest, closest friends knew (which they don't) or my father-in-law (who's our accountant) know either. Who I really don't want to know are the numerous acquaintances and moderate friends I know out there. I do enough already to be judged poorly by them, why would I throw my money stuff into the mix. But what if I could get over it? Should I care that much?