Let's Talk Salary Numbers
Because that makes no one uncomfortable, right?
Note: this post contains a few updates, because I had mistakenly cited the male average compensation rather than overall average compensation for Presbyterian/Reformed churches and wanted to further clarify a few points.
In all my research on women in ministry, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m researching the, um, fun topic of compensation... which is totally uncontroversial and never gets anyone upset.
One thing I’ve learned is that women tend to have less career-related financial literacy - as in, they know less about what they should be paid and less about how to negotiate compensation. In light of that, today I’m sharing what I’ve found statistically about salaries for women in youth ministry.
Every year, Dan Navarra puts together a Youth Pastor Compensation Report for Chemistry Staffing and The Youth Cartel. This year’s fresh-off-the-press report (with 2024 salary numbers) had over 1,000 respondents from numerous denominations, and reported a national average salary for a full-time youth pastor of $55,732. Specifically within the Presbyterian/Reformed category, it was $57,815.1
In 2023, one of the denominations I’m connected with (which would fit into that Presbyterian/Reformed category) collected data from its churches on salaries. Of those that responded (which, to be clear, is not the whole denomination, so this is a limited sample size) and reported compensation for a full-time youth pastor/leader, the median total pay was around $62k, with the lowest being $33k and the highest $118k.
There’s a bit of a discrepancy here in the data when you take into consideration that the denominational data is older than the YPCR data - a year ago, the YPCR numbers were further behind those denominational numbers. I’d guess that the several-thousand-dollar difference is perhaps because 1) this denomination in general probably pays better than mainline Presbyterian/Reformed denominations and 2) a lot of their churches were reporting pay for ordained youth pastors. Ordination within this denomination will almost always result in a pretty good bump in pay. In fact, Dan Navarra’s research this year showed about a $12k gap in the Presbyterian/Reformed category between ordained and non-ordained pay.
Here’s one other point of comparison that helps make that point. Recently, I was looking through job postings for the PCA and EPC denominations hiring youth pastors/directors. Most churches don’t include salaries in job postings, but for those that did, I recorded the numbers and adjusted them to the national average cost of living. Average pay for ordained youth pastor positions tended to be around $65-70k, while the non-ordained youth director positions were closer to $55k.
Each of these data points — the YPCR, the denomination-specific info, and the job posting research — has its own limitations, but it feels like what I saw in those job postings is within the normal range for these circles.
Additionally, I was able to find a smaller sample of research that indicated that the salaries of those that report to the youth director or pastor (like a Coordinator, Assistant Director, etc — jobs that many females in youth ministry occupy) tend to be in the $40’s-k or lower. In general, starting salaries seem to be around $40k for those with less experience, more for those with experience and/or education, and in the $30’s-k if it’s an intern or residency position.
From this info, if you’re a woman in youth ministry in these Reformed spaces, I think these numbers should give you a good place to start in assessing how fairly you are being compensated. Keep in mind, of course, that you always need to take into consideration things like cost of living for your area, your church’s size and budget, and your own educational and experience levels.2 Just because you make less than average doesn’t necessarily mean you’re being unfairly compensated when you take these factors into consideration.
All things being equal, there’s an important difference to pick up on. For many women in youth ministry, they get “stuck” in jobs that pay in the $40’s-k (in today’s dollars — adjust for inflation if we’re talking about a different time period). If they fight hard and navigate the career maze well, they can get into the jobs that will start at more like $55k. But they will often be ineligible to bump up to the next pay grade, even if they get a seminary education. (And, actually, sometimes even after getting a seminary degree, the reporting-to-the-youth-pastor job is the one they land. I can point to myself and a few other women for whom this was the case.)
I’m not saying that ordination shouldn’t result in a difference in compensation. I am saying, though, that staying in youth ministry for the long-haul can become hard for women when they’re ineligible for important pay bumps. At some point, they may not be able to make it work financially. When you start at much lower pay, and increases in pay and retirement benefits are usually based on percentages of pay, the differential will be significant over the course of decades.3
I’ve heard of some churches that are getting more creative about this for non-ordained positions — looking for ways to make sure that everyone on staff is compensated well, even if certain staff members don’t “advance” in the typical way (i.e. through ordination). I’m hoping more churches join their ranks.
I mention this because these are the theological circles I run in. If you’re not in the Presbyterian/Reformed category, go look at the report and find your category! You can find the report here: https://www.chemistrystaffing.com/resources/2025-ypc-report/
Also, note that the YPCR uses “youth pastor” as a generic term to refer to any person that is the head of the youth ministry, regardless of whether “pastor” is in their title.
In fact, the YPCR does a great job of going into more detail about these kinds of factors. You’ll have to look elsewhere for cost of living data and calculators, though.
Take, for instance, one person making $55k and another making $65k. Assuming they each get a 3% raise every year, and that they are each getting a 5% retirement matching benefit from their employers (even though the person making $65k will often have a better matching benefit… let’s just make it even), at the end of 35 years, the higher-salaried worker would have made about $635k more in pay and retirement benefits.