Ten years ago, Bart Barber made a motion for an ad hoc committee to study SBC seminary salaries. The motion was ruled out of order. There was a discussion of it on SBC Voices but I cannot find it. My view was that the seminaries should structure their compensation on market factors, supply and demand. Bart, as I recall and he can correct me, thought the pay was low and should be upgraded (or at least examined) on some other more comprehensive basis. I have no idea how seminaries make decisions on faculty pay but suspect that it involves multiple internal and external factors.
Individual seminary salaries are not available to ordinary SBCers but the SBC Book of Reports includes each year tables under the heading “Seminary Comparative Data.” Here are selected items on compensation. I admit that I don’t know if the salary is salary + housing allowance, or includes benefits or what. The table says “base salary.” Neither do I know if each of the six seminaries reports comparable data or adds or subtracts some items based on their particularities.
Full-Time Faculty Salary Structure Range (Base Salary)
Assistant Professor (average of five seminaries, GS didn’t report or has no assistant profs): Low, $49,520; Median, $56,480; High, $71,485.
Associate Professor (average of all six, rounded off): Low, $53,200; Median, $54,000; High, $76,700.
Full Professor: Low, $53,300; Median, $71,000; High, $90,000
Percent of total budget that relates to personnel expenses based on each seminary’s E&G budget (salaries and benefits):
Gateway, 66%
New Orleans, 70.5%
Southwestern, 70.6%
The other seminaries didn’t report this but I suspect that they are similar.
A few random items:
- Generally, seminary faculty are very modestly paid, seems to me.
- Southern has at least one full professor whose base salary is $34,775, an outlier but maybe there are other considerations.
- Southern has at least one full professor whose base salary is in six figures, $106,703.
- The median full prof average is about the same as for a senior pastor of a church with 200-300 in attendance each week.
- Midwestern has the highest salary for an Associate Professor and has a higher median salary for the same positions but the lowest salary in the “low” range. Midwestern also has the largest differential in full professors – a low range of about $41k and a high range of about $92k.
- There must be a good many seminary faculty who are slogging along with very modest pay but I’d suspect that there is an oversupply of qualified people for open positions.
- An interesting comparison would be between the highly educated seminary faculty and other denominational saff.
- Administrative salaries (presidents, VPs, etc.) are not included in the tables.
I did calculations hurriedly. Some one can fact check me if they wish.
I suspect there are a lot of factors about seminary pay of which I am unaware. Enlighten me.
I appreciate the work of our seminary faculties and other workers.
I am aware of another non Baptist seminary that has similar salary ranges. Also, if these ranges are inconsistent with the market, there would be lots of vacancies. This issue is responsibility of governing board and administration of each seminary however.
I would be very interested in knowing how the administrative personnel rank. If they are better paid in relation to their secular counterparts then I would say we have a problem with faculty salaries. HOWEVER, supply and demand would seem to indicate many are willing to work for these more modest salaries since any opening is so quickly filled. I also know seminary faculty members have opportunities to receive additional compensation via interims, conferences, etc. So perhaps that, rightly or wrongly, is how the gap is bridged today.
Thanks, William, for this post. My educated guess is that the figures you cite include salary and benefits, a total package, if you will. Most professors must seek to do interim pastorates and conferences in order to support their families. This is especially true for assistant professors. My first year on faculty at Southern Seminary I preached in chapel. After the service, Dr. Wayne Ward, an emeritus professor, came to me and said, “If you can preach that well, what are you doing here? You could make a lot more money as a pastor.” Professors are under paid. However, as… Read more »
To me the term “base salary” means before benefits. Churches who deal with staff compensation fairly, in my experience, are clear between the two main concepts of “salary” vs. “pay/compensation package” and I would expect the book of reports to be similarly clear.
I saw this figures and looked through them a couple days ago. I would be displeased to know the figures reported were salary plus benefits combined. They seem mostly fair, maybe slightly low, if they do indeed refer only to salary.
For ordained faculty, surely it is sal + housing, same as the LifeWay compensation study.
It is a hard thing. I am guessing that since Bart is now on thr BoT at SWBTS he will not opine much on something like this.
My guess is that profs in seminaries are always going to be paid on a lower scale than profs at secular schools, even perhaps colleges.
They should be fairly paid. Defining fairly is the trick.
I have a question. When profs write and speak, do they get the income? Or does it count as “works for hire” and the school gets it?
He’s a good guesser, that Dave Miller.
Could the discussion you reference have taken place at the old SBC Today, before it became what it is now?
Could have. Memory fails me occasionally. The matter will forever be in the SBC minutes, though.
“What it is now” is helpful. 🙂
http://praisegodbarebones.blogspot.com/2007/05/daring-to-aspire-to-mediocrity.html?m=0
As an assistant professor (of music/worship) at a small Christian liberal arts college in Missouri (non-denom), I can vouch that these numbers are fairly comparable with the broader academic market. However, the temptation that I often face is that salaries for worship pastors straight out of seminary (which was me in 2009) are typically higher than the highest end professorial jobs. I would imagine the same holds true for theology/preaching/language professors and pastoral positions. Typically, the academic market has to pay professors in a given field a salary more or less equal to what they would be able to earn… Read more »
As an HR practitioner, I would love to know more about pay and benefits for our seminary professors. I work in a very rigid job classification system that has different grades for different jobs, and a different steps within those grades for pay setting based primarily on years of service. The seminaries are a completely different industry (religious higher education) are going to be very different. The student bodies are much smaller than secular universities. The costs per credit hour, while high to young twenty-somethings working part-time at Chick-Fil-A, are very low when compared to other academic institutions. When your… Read more »
I can answer the question Dave raised above. Professors get to keep speaking honorariums and book royalties. Seminary professors definitely receive lower salaries than professors in major universities. I don’t know how seminary salaries would compare with Baptist colleges. Probably, it would depend on the college. Seminary professors progress through academic ranks: assistant professor, associate professor, and full professor. The higher your rank, the higher your salary. I do recall that when I was at Southern Seminary (1993-2004), Dr. Mohler told us more than once that the administration had budgeted money for faculty raises, but the money instead went to… Read more »
I am in favor of paying our seminary professors as well as possible but I question if the figures used are based on a minimal number of semester hours in a class room. These professors would then be able add to their total compensation by teaching more hours, summers school, online classes, extension centers and the such.
Dean
Did you go to MABTS?
No sir, Glenn. I went to NOBTS and MBTS.
My understanding is that tenure track profs (non-adjunct) are required to teach a minimum load I.e. 8-12 credit hours, and classes taught above that are extra, if they are available and if they “make,” since most of these classes are electives and have a minimum enrollment requirement. I know across the board, there seems to be a definite pull to use more adjunct faculty as they are cheaper, but the seminaries I am familiar with still try to faculty members as much as possible. That said, the the pay is comparatively low, and complex.
The opportunity to teach more to earn more is possible at some seminaries. A professor is usually responsible to teach 24 semester hours each year, plus other duties (advising students, serving on a committee, etc.). One professor told me that several of the professors at his SBC seminary taught online classes for Liberty University to earn extra money.
Why is it so hard to find out the total pay compensation for any employee that receives money from SBC? This lack of transparency at all levels of SBC leadership is troubling. Why is the total benefit package including per diem, vacation, sick days and all other benefits including income from publications not readily available? How many churches hide their staff pay packages so well as the SBC at all levels. This is not a private owned enterprise. If the SBC member is going to be asked to increase the pay of someone would it not be fair to ask… Read more »
You’re mixed up. Each SBC entity is privately owned. No SBC member is asked to increase any entity employee’s pay. In regard to seminary faculty, these charts give the basic info.
You might indentify one “great perk” that trustees give each other.
It is clear that SBC entities do not follow the disclosure practices in the same way as public corporations who are required by law to publish compensation infor for officers. You might try asking trustee chairmen to disclose the salary range for executive level employers.
William, you are right , I am confused and mixed up. I do not understand why it is not available for the general SBC member to find out the pay of SBC employees or organizations supported by the SBC. The trustees system is non transparent and who really nominates the trustees? Seems to me the trustee system failed monitoring the IMB finances. Perks, again I do not have any info as where would I get it? Per diem rates, lodging, meetings and other items that could be used to help influence decisions could or could not be a factor, again… Read more »
I have written and edited several books, published by Broadman & Holman, Baker Publishing, and InterVarsity Press. I’m sorry to report that publishing seminary textbooks usually does not pay much. I receive about one dollar per book sold in royalties. I co-edited one book, and my remuneration so far is $600. Another book I authored has brought me less than $2,000. If you think professors make a lot of money from royalties, think again. I look at writing as a ministry, not a way to make money. A full professor whose children are grown and gone does fine financially. An… Read more »
John, I don’t disagree that the system is somewhat non-transparent at the level of detail you ask. Trustees are elected at the SBC (for national entities) and state convention meetings (for state entities). Anyone can be nominated. You can ask a trustee for a particular entity these questions or you could contact the organization. These are all separate, private organizations. Many churches do hide their staff pay (mine never did) but that’s their business, not anyone else’s. I think it to be a bad practice.
William thanks for the info, seems like a cumbersome system for pretty basic information about where money goes. I believe the resolution of 2007 was a good one and believe the workers at all SBC organizations should be fairly paid. As a lay person and someone said is your Pastor paid fairly I can yes because I know how much he makes, it is disclosed yearly in our budget and you can really just ask him or his staff, does not come up because people who are interested look at the budget where it is spelled out . I do… Read more »