Whom to call for clergy compensation and benefits

All articles in this series are available here as published. 

Questions about clergy compensation and benefits come to Ask The UMC regularly throughout the year, especially when a church is transitioning from full-time clergy to part time, or when a clergyperson is considering retirement, is no longer able to manage their own affairs, or has died.

Basic compensation

Each annual conference sets a conference minimum salary annually. If your congregation is about to receive a new pastor or have a change in appointment status from full-time to part-time or vice versa as of July 1, check the most recently published conference journal. Most annual conferences include the most recent journal on their websites. The journal will include the final report of your conference's Commission on Equitable Compensation as approved by the annual conference. That report will list the minimum compensation for elders in full connection, provisional members and licensed local pastors, as well as for various levels of part-time appointments for each status. Some may also include minimum compensation for deacons who are primarily serving a local church. The conference minimum compensation is a baseline requirement. Your church may provide more, but it cannot provide less.

There is one situation where consulting the most recent conference journal may not work. Most annual conferences in the United States meet in May or June but do not publish their journals until the fall. So if you are made aware in August about a change in appointment to begin the following February, you will want use a different approach. First, consult with your current pastor or lay member of annual conference to learn whether the recommendation from the Commission on Equitable Compensation was approved by the annual conference as presented. If they are not certain, contact your district or conference office to verify. Assuming it was approved without amendment, you can then check the book of reports for that year’s annual conference on your annual conference website and use the Commission on Equitable Compensation report as your planning guide. If there were amendments, you would want to ask what they were and adjust accordingly.

Paid vacation and sick/personal leave

Each annual conference sets its own policy for paid vacation and sick/personal leave. Once set, it may be a number of years before these policies are revisited. Check the most recent conference journal first. Just be aware that unless there was a change at the most recent conference, your conference journal may not include such information. A few conferences post such personnel policies on their websites, so you may wish to check there next. If your conference does not, you will want to call your conference office and ask to speak with your director of clergy services or human resources.

If you are clergy and need to go on medical leave or long or short-term disability status, first call your district office to begin to process your leave status. Then call your conference benefits administrator to help you get enrolled in the proper insurance program.

Health insurance

If your conference provides a health insurance plan for clergy of local churches, both your church and enrolled clergy should receive information annually about the plans available,  their costs to the clergy and to the church, and the deadline for enrollment for the following year. The plan in which a clergyperson is enrolled follows that clergyperson to a new appointment during the same calendar year. Some conferences (Great Plains and Arkansas, for example) do not provide a health insurance plan. Instead, they require their clergy to find a plan on the health insurance exchange and their local churches to provide an extra stipend to help offset the cost of the plan to the clergy.

To enroll in a conference-provided medical plan or for any questions about the enrollment process, contact your conference benefits administrator. If your conference offers a plan through Wespath, and you have specific questions about claims or denials, contact one of Wespath's Care Coordinators online through Benefits Access or by phone, 833-762-0876, Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-10:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

In conferences that do not provide a medical plan, the conference benefits administrator may be able to help you navigate some of your options in the health insurance exchange.For all plan-specific or claims questions, however, you may need to contact your medical insurance provider directly.

A number of conferences offer a range of Medicare supplement plans for retired clergy. A few offer such plans or an option to choose your own plan from the exchange and receive a stipend to help offset some of the cost of the premiums. Some offer only a stipend. While your conference benefits administrator may have general information about coordination of benefits between Medicare and your supplement plan, you should generally contact your insurer for most questions regarding claims or the terms of your specific coverage.

Your annual conferences may offer optional additional coverages as well. Contact your conference benefits administrator for questions about enrollment in these additional plans, if available. Contact the company offering such plans for more specific questions about the plan in which you have enrolled or are considering enrolling.

Retirement benefits

Wespath is the primary retirement benefits provider for United Methodist clergy and lay employees. Wespath provides all enrolled plan members quarterly reports and other updates as needed about the status of their plan investments.

The basic plan for retirement benefits for clergy changes substantially beginning January 1, 2026 for all active clergy. The Clergy Retirement Security Program, which includes both a traditional, annuiity based pension (defined benefit) and direct investment opportunities, will end, and be replaced by a plan that is entirely based on what each clergyperson and local church invests in the plan (defined contribution). The new plan is called Compass. Basic information about this substantial change in the structure and nature of clergy benefits is provided on the Wespath website. The Personal Investment Plan for lay employees is not changing.

Clergy who retired under previous plans will continue to receive the benefits they had under those plans. Retired clergy are not affected by the change to Compass for active clergy.

For any questions about your particular account or how these retirement plans will affect you, you may contact Wespath directly.  If you have been given a power of attorney for an enrolled plan member, especially if some of the benefits are to be assigned to you, also contact Wespath directly. If you have moved, or if you are a beneficiary of a clergy plan member who has died, call the clergy member’s conference benefits administrator. The conference benefits administrator will coordinate with Wespath to ensure you receive all benefits you are due in a timely manner.

Managing compensation and benefits issues can be complicated. The United Methodist Church has people in place who can help you do this or point you to the people who can.

Burton Edwards is lead for Ask The UMC, the information service of United Methodist Communications.