Church treasurers of every Alabama Baptist congregation are invited to participate in an annual survey on compensation for church employees.
“In late January, we mailed forms to each treasurer asking for information on the salaries and benefits of all paid church employees,” said Derrell Crimm, director of the Office of Support Services and Annuity and Insurance at the State Board of Missions.
The surveys returned are kept confidential, Crimm explained, and used only to help produce the annual Laymen’s Salary Study (LSS) report – a tool designed to assist churches in planning fair and equitable compensation for their employees.
“After the data is entered into the computer, the survey forms are shredded,” Crimm emphasized. “We do not keep or maintain this highly confidential information in any form once the survey is complete.”
Thirty-five state conventions participate in gathering data for the LSS, which summarizes in statistical form what churches are paying their employees compared to other churches of similar size and annual receipts. Dorothy Seymour, an executive committee member from Tuscaloosa Association and chairman of the LSS subcommittee, calls the report “a tremendous benefit for helping churches evaluate staff salaries, because the data is submitted by laypersons and compiled and sent back to the churches in an easy-to-read and usable format.” “This report includes churches of all sizes,” Seymour explained. “We categorize the information in such a way that it can be helpful to the very smallest bivocational church and the largest of churches.”
For information on the LSS, contact Crimm at 1-800-264-1225, ext. 342, or e-mail him at dcrimm@alsbom.org. The Web site is www.alsbom.org/lss. (SBOM)
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