How many hours per day does your minister work, though? Is he really working 40 hours a week doing sermons or whatever? If he’s only doing maybe 3 services per week, he might be making 15k a year for doing 10 hours of work every week. Not bad.

@FutureMemory That’s right. He had a second job as a room cleaner. I always wondered how he supported himself , wife and three children.

The clergy gets a stipend and a lot of benefits attached to it. The books on the higher levels aren’t exactly easy to find, but in San Diego priests are on average paid $20k or so a year with room and board, taxes, retirement/pension, health and auto insurance, continuing education, and travel allowances paid for by the parish or the diocese.

Which sounds like a good deal compared to what your minister is getting, but that minister does not need to make the kind of sacrifices that a priest does for their ministry.