This is the seventh post in the series How to Successfully Apply to Church Music Jobs. This series is based on my survey of over 250 church musicians and hiring committee members, conversations with my colleagues, and my experience in almost 20 years of church music ministry.
Congratulations on your job offer! Now you need to negotiate your salary, benefits, and other terms of employment. While there’s nothing stopping you from not negotiating, you should.
As one person wrote, “Musicians (self included in the past) often do not realize that they CAN and SHOULD negotiate.”
Why You Should Negotiate Your Salary and Benefits
If the thought of negotiating makes you uncomfortable, try thinking of it this way.
Negotiating helps both you and the church feel that you are fairly compensated. Nobody at the church wants to do another job search in six months because you were unhappy enough with the terms that you kept looking for another job.
Negotiating is also a way to ensure that you and the church both have a clear understanding of your job. A church might already have a job description that you and they both agree is clear and complete. However, many job descriptions are unclear and incomplete. Save yourself a headache and make sure your job description is clear and complete.
What You Need to Know in Order to Negotiate
First, know normative salaries and benefits are in your area.
Second, know the kinds of things you can negotiate (spoiler alert, salary isn’t always negotiable).
Third, know what you want. Know what you want, not just salary/benefits, but in your job description too.
How to Negotiate Your Salary
Let’s start first with salaries. That’s the thing musicians are most likely to negotiate. 54% of the musicians who took my survey said that they negotiated their salaries.
To negotiate your salary effectively, you need to know the normative salaries for church music jobs in your area. I have tips on figuring that out here. In my survey, many hiring committee members said that that applicants should already know normative salaries and diocesan guidelines (if relevant).
If a church’s offered salary is lower than your area’s normal rate, you can apprise the church of that and see if they have room to negotiate a higher salary.
However, many hiring committees have little or no room to negotiate salaries.
How Churches Arrive at Salary/Benefits
Unlike most jobs, hiring committees at churches can’t always negotiate on salary or benefits. In fact, 58% of committee members who responded to my survey said salary/benefits were already decided before the job search or that the committee had no input on the salary/benefits.
If they did have the ability to decide on salary/benefit range, committee members used these sources to arrive at their target:
- AGO salary guidelines (note: these are no longer a resource)
- church budget and/or a range given by the church council that the committee could work with
- survey of local musicians
- denominational and/or diocesan guidelines
- previous musician’s salary/benefits
What if the committee wants you to name a salary expectation?
A number of applicants said that they had been asked for “salary expectations” by a committee, without know what general range a committee was working with.
Personally, I have responded to those requests by saying that my expectations are in-line with similar positions in that geographic area. But I don’t respond with a number. As one applicant wrote: “Never put out a number until after they do.”
Another applicant brought up a related problem, which is that unless a job description mentioned salary range (and many don’t), you might end up with wasted time: “I always ask for a salary range BEFORE a final interview to make sure we’re not wasting anyone’s time. My spouse was offered a job once after 3 interviews based on the church’s lie of paying AGO standard salary, and the actual offer wasn’t even close to acceptable for full-time work.”
However, several hiring committee members said they disliked inquiries about salary early in the application process. So proceed carefully.
Other Things You Can Negotiate
After salaries, here’s what other musicians who took my survey said they had negotiated:
- Benefits, healthcare, 14%
- Benefits, vacation/sick time/continuing education, 37%
- Benefits, other, 5%
- Budget for the music program, 16%
- Start date, 50%
- Other responses: annual salary increases, structure of hours on-site at the church, teaching privileges at the church, job title, continuing education (both time and financial support), sabbaticals, right of first refusal for weddings/funerals
Several musicians said that they were told nothing was negotiable. However, they couldn’t know that information without first asking.
Churches Are Often More Flexible with Vacation Days than Salary
Many musicians who took my survey commented on this tendency.
For example, one person said, “Churches are willing to be creative in benefits for the right candidate, such as extended vacation or continuing education allowances.”
Another person wrote: “I know a church musician who got ‘pay raises’ in the form of additional vacation days (Sundays) because the church didn’t have the budget for a monetary pay increase. After a couple of years of this practice, the musician was earning 8 paid Sundays off each year. When that church musician changed jobs, they were asked how many vacation days (Sundays) they earned in their present position, and the musician was granted the same number of vacation days in the new position.”
On a related note, you might have to educate a hiring committee on how church musician’s so-called “vacation days” are not completely comparable to vacations from a Monday-Friday job. Because most jobs have weekends off, most family events like weddings and funerals happen on Saturdays and Sundays. Church musicians have weddings and funerals to attend just like everyone else, but the events usually happen on a “work day.” So having, say, 4 Sundays off a year doesn’t necessarily mean “4 weeks of vacation”—it means that you can have a vacation AND attend normal family events.
Be Wise and Be Honest
On the musician-side of my survey, many responses showed how important wisdom is for negotiating.
On the hiring committee-side of my survey, several committee member responses mentioned sincere and honest communication during negotiations. And they especially seemed to say this after having negative experiences. As one respondent said, don’t be the person whose job offer is rescinded because you tried con the church.
Here’s more advice from musicians on the importance of wisdom in negotiating:
- “While early layers of the interview need to be respectful and circumspect, it is CRUCIAL that musicians be very clear on the job description and the hours/roles expected of them, prior to accepting a position. Being able to say, ‘I’m sorry, I’m really not able to add XYZ date and time of extra work to my position; as we discussed in my interview, I have such and such a commitment…’ is of greatest value. Likewise, committees/pastors need to be clear on this as well, being up front about expectations in terms of time, hours, days off, substitute compensation for vacations, etc. If asking those questions (respectfully and courteously) bars one from being offered employment at that church, it may turn out to have been for the better.”
- “Get a job description in writing if you don’t have one before accepting the job.”
- “Sign a contract. If they are reluctant- run!”
- “1) Ask whether the church expects the church musician to sign a contract. If so, compare it with the AGO model contract, and either be comfortable with the differences, or negotiate changes to the contract to close the needed gaps. 2) Also, ask the church for their position on ensuring that they have the legal right to use all music that will be used in the church, or whether they will be expecting the church musician to not comply with the copyright laws in order to perform their expected duties. (The AGO model contract has language that addresses this quite well.).”
- “If you’re in an interview and you feel it isn’t going according to your expectations, don’t be afraid to withdraw yourself from consideration. It’s better to do that than go through with a potential disaster. Also, if offered a position, don’t let them rush you into a decision on accepting it unless you are 100% confident about it – and even then, take a second to make sure of everything.”
- “You should make sure there is a written evaluation. It will help alleviate uncommunicated expectations.”
Get a Church Music Job You Love Series
This series is based on my survey of over 250 church musicians and the people who have hired them.
- I surveyed 250+ church musicians. Here’s what I learned about getting a church music job you love.
- 17 Places to Find Church Music Jobs
- 3 Ways to Research a Church Music Job Opening
- How Much Are Church Musicians Paid? Here’s How to Find Out.
- How to Write a Church Music Cover Letter and Resume (Plus the #1 Way to Make Hiring Committees Happy)
- 29 Interview Questions You Might Get (Plus 34 for YOU to Ask)
- How to Negotiate Salary and Benefits (and Why You Should)
- 4 Things You Need to Get a Church Music Job You Love (Plus 9 Big No-nos)
- Do These 8 Things to Get a Church Music Job You Love (Ep. 22 of the Music and the Church Podcast)
