What Type of Clergy Get the Highest Salaries?
A priest, a rabbi, and an imam walk into a bar. Who buys the drinks?
Judaism. The American Jewish newspaper Forward conducted a survey in 2010 comparing salaries for rabbis, protestant ministers, and Roman Catholic priests.
The rabbis came out on top by a wide margin, with an average annual haul of approximately $140,000, including a tax-free housing allowance.
Christian holy men earn more than $100,000 less than rabbis, on average, with Catholic priests making even less.
There are a couple of reasons why: Christian congregations tend to be smaller than their Jewish counterparts and often have multiple pastors. Also, rabbis typically spend more years in training than Christian ministers.
A Christian holy man could land a high-paying gig at a megachurch, but those jobs are rare.
The average pastor with a flock of more than 2,000 people earns $147,000.
The best-paid get more than $400,000.
Even their underlings do pretty well, with assistant pastors at the biggest churches earning in the high five figures. Only 0.5 percent of protestant churches, however, can boast of such numbers.
Read more at Slate.
