Lay Ecclesial Ministry & Family Wage

An MOJ reader shared the following comments about my recent post on the feminization of the lay ecclesial ministry.  I think his arguments ought to apply equally to the "middle-aged women" running the Catholic Church who are mothers, though.

I am an alumn of Franciscan University of Steubenville, which turns out a disproportionate number of lay ecclesial ministers.  Four of my male classmates found jobs in the Church upon graduation: two youth ministers, a high school teacher, and a parochial director of music and liturgy.

None of them were employed by the church thee years later, and interestingly enough, all have entered the traditional business world or law school.  The economic and social implications both weighed heavily on their decisions.  None felt confident that he could support his family on the salary offered by the Curch.  At the same time, most reflected a significant impact of the large female employee majority in the parish office to the point where one even remarked, "The Catholic Church is run by middle-aged women."

I think the underlying problem is the tension inherent in the difference of the idea of fairness in the Church and in the American psyche.  In the Church, a fair wage is what somebody needs to adequately support his or her family.  Thus, ceterus paribus, a single man, and a married man with five children should receive different wages, since the familial supporter needs more to live.  In the American culture, on the other hand, a fair wage means the same compensation for the same work.  It doesn't matter if the person is a bachelor with an extravagent lifestyle or a father trying to send five kids to Catholic School, so long as both men perform the same task, they should be compensated identically. This is even taken to the extreme where the single man can work 60 hour weeks and not sacrifice other aspects of his life, where the married man struggles to work 40.  Obviously, the single man will become more important to the company and receive promotions which, in turn, increase his salary even more.

I'm not arguing that the American ideal of fairness is bad, but simply that there are some unintended consequences resulting from it.  It would be quite challenging for secular businesses to pay based on state in life when it is a much clearer system to pay according to benefit for the company. But regarding the Church, we would have to convince the Church secretary who has worked there for 10 years as a second income while her children are in school that she should get paid less than a person with no experience who has a family to support, so the income tends to be small, and women earning second incomes tend to remain in these types of jobs. Obviously, there are no easy solutions.  I have heard of a couple of Catholic organizations who give raises along with the birth of a child to go along with this idea of a living wage, but it would be challenging to make this more prevalent.