You get what you pay for:
Riegert, Norbert L
You get what you pay for There is no such thing as a free lunch. A corollary of this old adage now faces those who hire personnel for the Catholic church: You get what you pay for. Until Catholic...
...In the final analysis, a just wage represents more than an adequate monetary figure...
...Increments in salary are not automatic, but are dependent on supervisory evaluations that are conducted twice a year and are properly documented...
...Scale B, which would have been more expensive, was developed to provide beginning employees increasing income in their early years in order to retain them...
...Second, a uniform salary scale had to be developed that took into account varying levels of training and experience and that permits the employer to calculate and budget for future payroll costs...
...First, a just wage must take into account the basic housing, food, clothing, and transportation needs of an employee with two dependents...
...The church as an employer operates in a competitive market...
...The importance of its mission cannot afford substandard personnel paid substandard wages offering substandard services...
...The salary scales are independent of other employee benefits, such as health insurance and pension...
...indeed the church should be exemplary...
...Third, the church is competing with other businesses and institutions for the skills and services of qualified personnel...
...Until Catholic schools, parishes, and other church organizations take that fact into account, they will have to depend on well-motivated and well-intentioned, but often inadequately trained personnel and unpredictable volunteers, while yearning for the days of the real "tree lunch" so generously provided by religious orders...
...These relationships establish morale in parish operations and play an intangible but vital role in the performance and retention of personnel...
...NORBERT L. RIEGERT Norbert L. Riegert has recently retired after serving thirty-seven years in the Milwaukee Catholic school system.school system...
...in the case of the church it is also a reflection of the visible relationships between the pastoral staff and employees...
...We gathered statistics from the U.S...
...Most of the faithful when given an honest and open explanation of financial matters will "pay for what they get...
...A scale was also drawn up for the clerical staff...
...and current worries (usually a tight financial picture) when considering salaries...
...In order to remain competitive and maintain excellence, it must offer salaries mat are attractive to prospective employees...
...Working with these assumptions and the figures we had gathered, the personnel committee developed two possible wage scales for the professional staff, which includes a director of religious education, a family minister, a youth minister, and a liturgist...
...Nevertheless, the just wage is a foundation...
...Faced with this problem, our parish...
...In beginning our work we made several assumptions...
...it ranged from $4.50 an hour for the school receptionist fat his or her first year to $7.40 for the bookkeeper in the fiftb year of employment...
...Department of Labor, from economic indicators in our own state of Wisconsin, and from a survey of the cost of living in our parish...
...Beyond this lies the challenge of defining and recognizing the ministry of the laity in church institutions-a task that may prove to be more difficult and of more consequence than the relatively simple one of arriving at a just wage...
...In addition, for support-staff salaries we looked at the scales of local unions and at salaries for comparable work in local businesses...
...Scale A, which the parish ultimately adopted for the professional staff, provided for a step-by-step increase ranging from $ 17,000 for a beginning employee with no degree to $29,600 for an employee with a master's degree and fifteen years' service...
...The pastoral letter on the economy directly addressed the issue: "All the moral principles that govern the just operation of any economic endeavor apply to the church and its agencies and institutions...
...The difficulty in this situation is that the determination of a just wage often depends on the subjective evaluation of employers, be they pastors, trustees, or councils, who draw on their past experiences, preconceived judgments...
...The answer is not to simply get by or put up with the situation, but to honestly report to parishioners the value of parish services and their true cost...
...Saint Matthias (Milwaukee), formed a personnel committee whose task was to attempt to arrive at a just wage for both its support and professional staff...
...Few in the church today would deny that there is a moral need to offer employees a just wage...
Vol. 115 • April 1988 • No. 7
