GC45 GCE02 GCE 02 Total Compensation Review Proposals for Summer 2025

Origin: ​Total Compensation Task Group​ 

1. What is the issue? 

The 44th General Council directed that a total compensation study for ministry personnel in the pastoral relations system and for ministry personnel and lay employees in General Council and regional councils staff systems be undertaken, reporting back to the 45th General Council. In November 2023, the Executive of the General Council established a Total Compensation Review Task Group to look at compensation practices through lenses of equitableness, adequacy, and sustainability.  

2. Why is it important?

Ministry is a unique vocation. It is a sacred vocation in and with the community of hopeful believers. In the pastoral relations system, it calls much of those who are entrusted with this vocation: much of spirit, of body, of mind, of heart. When the church affirms a Call to pastoral ministry and then appoints or calls a minister to a paid accountable position, it commits to a covenant to provide compensation which affirms their call, acknowledges their gifts, permits them to meet their financial obligations, and allows them to secure satisfying food, shelter, and tools to sustain themselves and those in their care.  

In the staff system of the General Council and regional councils, lay and ordered people work side by side. Vocation is acted out in more of a traditional employment relationship than a pastoral relationship.   

The church commits to fair, equitable, and sustainable compensation policies and practices in both the pastoral relations and the staff systems. Reviewing our policies and practices to ensure that they are fair, equitable and sustainable is faithful diligence.   

3. How might the General Council respond to this issue?

The General Council might agree to: 

1. receive the report of the Total Compensation Task Group;
2. add to The Manual section I.2.1.1 a) the words “fair, just, and equitable,”
3. encourage regional councils to exercise oversight to limit creation of part-time positions so that the onus is on the church to, where possible, provide full-time equivalent employment opportunities rather than ministry personnel having to “cobble together” full-time equivalencies. 

Further, the General Council might direct the General Secretary to: 

4. recommend to the 2026 45th General Council annual meeting the elimination or revision of specific by-laws that confound/complicate co-operative and collaborative ministries employment;
5. annually provide regional councils with aggregate payroll data by regional cost of living groups to support them ensuring fair and equitable compensation terms at the time of appointment and call and ensuring compliance with minimum salary standards;
6. apply regional cost of living compensation differentials to communities of faith providing a manse to ministry personnel;
7. undertake further study into relative parity of United Church minimum salaries with the minimums of Presbyterian, Evangelical Lutheran and Anglican churches and a possible implementation plan; 
8. work with the leadership and wisdom of the National Indigenous Council to develop a compensation model, and funding for that model, that is relevant to remote Indigenous communities of faith;  
9. explore with the Indigenous leadership additional resources and supports for ministry personnel serving Indigenous communities of faith, specific to the context of remote Indigenous ministries;
10. annually adjust minimum salaries by the annualized Consumer Price Index (CPI) if 3% or less; when the CPI exceeds 3%, staff gather data on wage predictions, collective agreements in not-for-profit and social service sectors, adjustments being offered by other denominations, to support the Executive of the General Council, considering issues of affordability, to set an adjustment. 
11. work with the Indigenous church as it discerns more appropriate compensation models and commit to removing any policy barriers to nimbleness in funding; 
12. explore the feasibility and acceptance of centralizing payroll administration: to relieve communities of faith of this complex burden, recognizing that treasurers would still have to be the source of employment and payroll data for the payroll administrators;  
13. expand the base of participation in the Leadership Counts equity study so that equity can be evaluated more thoroughly.  

4. For the body transmitting this proposal to the General Council  

Are there comments, affirmations, suggestions you would like to make with respect to this proposal? 

5. Is this proposal in response to assigned work – either from General Council or a previous GCE meeting? Please list proposal / motion numbers. 

• 44th General Council Proposals:
  • Way Forward 36: PM03 & SW06 Pension & Salary Equity  
• May 12-13, 2023, Executive of the General Council meeting: 
  • GS 08 Terms of Reference for Total Compensation Task Group
• November 22-23, 2024, Executive of the General Council meeting:
  • DRAFT Interim Report to the Executive of the General Council Total Compensation Task Group 
     

For the body transmitting this proposal to the General Council: 
Please select the appropriate option and provide the key discussion points for items being forwarded to the General Council: 
☑ Agree
☐ Disagree without forwarding to the General Council
☐ Disagree and forwarding to the General Council
☐ Take no action at this time 

If you have questions regarding this proposal, please send them to: GCinfo@united-church.ca