Hybrid employees are common in the ministry, especially at smaller churches. There are several methods your church can use to combine salary data from multiple reports for a hybrid employee.

Throughout this article, we will use the example of a children/youth/associate pastor at a small church.

Before using any of the method’s below, perform these steps for the employee in question:

The basic goal is to create a recipe for this hybrid employee—e.g., 18% children's pastor, 25% youth pastor, and 57% associate pastor.

With this recipe in hand, use one the methods below.

Blend salary data from multiple reports using a weighted method.

Adjust the weight of the salary data using the percentages you’ve already established, as if you were measuring ingredients based on a recipe—i.e., 1 tablespoon of associate pastor, a 1/2 tablespoon of youth pastor, and 1 teaspoon of children’s pastor.

The math for a weighted average salary (using normalized generic nationwide figures from the chart below) would look something like this:

To calculate a full salary range, either repeat this weighting process for the first quartile, median, and third quartile or calculate a new range using a weighted midpoint and a salary spread. Use this free Excel spreadsheet from ChurchSalary to generate a new salary range using a salary spread.

Imagine that you are listing the job online. Which component of the job would dominate your listing? Of the positions you've identified, which does the employee spend the majority of their time doing? Use this to price the job.

For example, does our hypothetical church need an associate pastor who can also oversee lay leaders who handle the week-to-week task of teaching kids and youth at the church? Or do they need a children’s/youth pastor who is talented, anointed, and capable of learning how to preach under the tutelage of the senior pastor? Those are two different positions and you would likely vet candidates based on two different set of criteria.

Every church should develop and utilize a salary structure. Learn more about salary structures and pay grades here.

To use this method, generate a set of reports for the positions you’ve already identified. Look at each set of figures. Determine which internal pay grade at your church best fits the data in your report and then situate the employee within the pay grade based on their education, experience, and other compensation factors.

Our example of an associate/youth/children's pastor may not suit this method since associate pastors usually occupy a higher salary grade than youth and children's pastors. Since associate and youth pastors typically occupy separate pay grades, our hypothetical church would either be forced to choose a tier based on the majority method or to create a hybrid pay grade that suits several other hybrid employees.

An advanced method is to assign either a premium or discount based on the market and the job's 'recipe.’ This method is similar to blending; however, it requires a level of intuition and knowledge about the job market that your church may not possess.

For our example, our hypothetical church may choose to discount their associate pastor role by 10% because they believe that the children’s/youth component will attract younger, less-qualified associate pastors (i.e., $62,757 x 0.90 = $56,481).

Or they may choose to add a 15% premium to youth and children’s salary data because they believe that even though this job fits into the youth/children’s job market, it will require a highly-qualified or talented candidate (i.e., $46,681 x 1.1 = $51,349).