I have had jobs where the additional fees are part of the salary. The hours of each week were adjusted to meet this need. At another place, I received a 1099 for all stipends -- they were all disbursed on checks drawn on the church account. The couple or the funeral home paid the church. Just two examples of how it has worked for me over the years.

You work for the pastor, not the accountant.
The church should set the rate for your (or the sub’s) services as wedding and funeral musician, but the money should never pass through church accounts.
Funeral homes and married couples should give you checks made out to you directly.

I have never, ever heard of not receiving stipends for funerals and weddings. I am salaried and I also receive checks from funeral homes or directly from the bride and groom respectively. This money has nothing to do with the church.

Alternatively, the church can incorporate your fee into the funeral/wedding stipend required to use the church. If the church currently costs $400 for a wedding, they can change it to $550 and then issue you an extra $150 on any paycheck that includes the extra services.

Your secretary is flat out wrong. Whether or not you report stipends as extra income to the irs is between you and God. If they are collected by the church on your behalf they will be automatically taxed.

I suspect that your pastor or rector could clear this up with a few words if he really cared about you.

This is the truth.

Pastors/ Rectors don't always know what the money people are thinking.

Also, parish staffs have weekend people and office people, and office people don't always understand the value of the weekend people.

I would definitely, non-defensively, talk to my boss about this, if it were me.

Some companies don't pay salaried employees for overtime. I realize you're not working for a company but the situation is similar. When you sit down with your pastor this is your opportunity to negotiate or renegotiate your services, don't cut yourself short and get everything, a job description or whatever in writing.

...weekend people...

Some of us are, in fact, "weekend people". I play one Mass per week, if I'm scheduled to do so, and don't get paid for it. (I have a full-time secular job, and since I plan to attend Mass anyway, I reason that I can play for the Mass i attend.)

I do get paid for weddings (by the couple) and funerals (usually by the funeral home).

FWIW.

Thank you everyone for your input. I'll let you all know how it goes.

I do believe I found the wording that the accountant is looking at, and it's found in the FLSA. However, I did some digging and found this portion in FLSA:

29 C.F.R. §541.604
"§ 541.604 Minimum guarantee plus extras.
(a) An employer may provide an exempt employee with additional compensation without losing the exemption or violating the salary basis requirement, if the employment arrangement also includes a guarantee of at least the minimum weekly-required amount paid on a salary basis. Thus, for example, an exempt employee guaranteed at least $684 each week paid on a salary basis may also receive additional compensation of a one percent commission on sales. An exempt employee also may receive a percentage of the sales or profits of the employer if the employment arrangement also includes a guarantee of at least $684 each week paid on a salary basis. Similarly, the exemption is not lost if an exempt employee who is guaranteed at least $684 each week paid on a salary basis also receives additional compensation based on hours worked for work beyond the normal workweek. Such additional compensation may be paid on any basis (e.g., flat sum, bonus payment, straight-time hourly amount, time and one-half or any other basis), and may include paid time off."

Hopefully that right there makes it open and shut.

Irishtenor hits upon the correct solution. There is no reason the money needs to pass through the church’s fingers.

Tell your pastor to restructure the church funeral and wedding fees so that the church does not collect payment for you.

Well the phone call is over. Most of it was explaining to me what FLSA, Minnesota Wage Theft Law, and Workman's Comp was which wasn't really anything I needed to know or I already knew. But he was adamant about "anything music is part of your job description," but agreed that the pastor and I need to hammer out a contract so as to carve out some music-related issues that aren't necessarily part of my job description. Basically I need the pastor to say in the job description "I authorize the director of music to receive bonus pay for all funerals in accordance with 29 C.F.R. §541.604 because funerals are not part of the job description due to their randomness of scheduling." The pastor has final say as to what my job description is, but the accountant stressed that IRS audits can happen 7 years after the fact if I try anything "evasive."

Interesting point that I forgot to ask until after the phone call: If a full time, exempt secretary volunteers for a secretary-like task at church outside of work hours, she needs to be compensated. If said full time, exempt secretary volunteers for something at church NOT a secretary-like task outside of work hours, she does not need to be compensated. Why can I not do this with funerals? By moving my work schedule around by staying 1-2 hours later in the day, I'm volunteering to play for a funeral, which is music-like, so I need to be compensated. Again, put it in the job description.

The FLSA section code I mentioned earlier did work on the surface, although the accountant wants to look into it further. He was of the opinion that the salary I make is well above minimum wage salary, so it shouldn't be necessary. Then again, that's not his decision to make! But if the church is brokering funeral pay then they can take the taxes out and pay me. I need a pastor with a backbone to make this work in my job description.

Employing myself at the local funeral home was iffy and sounded like it still wouldn't work.

So for now, the result is inconclusive. Thank you for all the prayers and help the past couple days. I appreciate it a lot!

This is ridiculous. None of this is the bookkeeper's business. The pastor handles your compensation, and the bookkeeper pays you according to the instructions he receives from the pastor.

I see a couple of solutions, any of which would work fine:

1) The funeral home and wedding couples pay the church, which then pays you a stipend on top of your regular salary. I have worked for more than one church which did this, and it was fine.

2) The funeral home and wedding couples pay you directly. You don't work **for** the funeral home. They just make sure you get a check.

3) You and the pastor agree to make funerals and weddings part of your regular compensation, increase your base pay commensurate with the average amount of funerals and weddings, and you receive no additional stipend, though your base pay has increased.

--------

Situation that's NOT fine:

4) The bookkeeper unilaterally decides that you make plenty of money already and should no longer receive stipends.

--------

Again, I say that additional stipends for funerals and weddings are absolutely standard across the "industry."

A worry I have is that the pastor doesn't actually have your back at all and has instructed the bookkeeper to make things difficult for you. I believe that this is what happened to me at a previous church/school where I was employed. The pastor allowed the HR director to lie, manufacture false evidence, eliminate my benefits, and lower my salary, but never had a direct hand in it himself. He, however, refused to intervene on my behalf, leaving me no alternative but to resign rather than to work under the new conditions of employment. I hope this is not the situation for you.

Situation that's NOT fine:

4) The bookkeeper unilaterally decides that you make plenty of money already and should no longer receive stipends.

This.

He was of the opinion that the salary I make is well above minimum wage salary, so it shouldn't be necessary.

MASSIVE red flag. This is way way past bookkeeper's job description and incredibly rude to boot.

Worst case scenario, use our data here, and email organists in your area to find out if they receive additional stipends (they do) and then go tot he pastor and say, “this is absolutely industry standard and here’s the data, including all the organists at the nearest 10 parishes.”

...so it shouldn't be necessary...

I have heard similar things on occasion.

It doesn't help either that our organist and some other church musicians around have said that they didn't "need" the money and worked "out of love for the Church".
Don't I love the Church? Maybe not enough...
Do I need the money? Of course not - it's the house owner, the supermarket etc. who want me to give them some...

That's a different story of course.
The problem here is a culture in which church musicians used to be salaried professionals (organist + choir directors), being distinct from non-professional volunteers; now financial restrictions only allow (i.e. by bishops' decree a couple of years ago, with very restricted exceptions) for contractors and volunteers, while most former salaried are retired now and often continue as the latter. This blurs te distinction between full-/semi-/non-professionals.

I'm salaried and yet funeral and wedding stipends were a part of the deal from the get-go. As I said, I'm paid directly by the family/couple which circumvents the church completely.

I am paid by the church for weddings and funerals in my regular paycheck (or whichever organist plays is paid). This doesn't seem to be any kind of tax problem for us, and our business manager is very detail-oriented and conscientious about these kind of things. I actually much prefer it because

a - I am not the one tracking down payments or late payments or lack of payments from the families

b - All of the tax ramifications are taken care of when the parish pays me. I don't have to keep track of the stipends as a "side business" for the end of the year - taxes are withheld just like they are from my normal paycheck.

The only weakness that I've seen in this arrangement is that the organist and cantor stipends are a set rate - so if we have a guest singer or organist who needs to charge more, they have to get part of their pay through the parish and part through the family.

My 2 cents - I don't see any problem with getting paid through the church. The problem seems to be that your parish accountant is far overreaching his authority, and has a chip on his shoulder about you to boot. In other words, he is abusing his position to harass a fellow employee, which is unprofessional and unethical. The proper channel is your rector, who is your actual employer.

Sorry you are going through this. Few things are more basic than the absolutely standard practice in our field of stipends for weddings and funerals. In fact, most jobs make this a significant part of the bargaining/compensation discussion when advertising and hiring a music director. Good luck!

Weddings and funerals are almost ALWAYS paid over and above the base salary.

I cannot think of any situation in which a full-time salaried employee is permitted to use the employer's:
premises - ie the church
equipment - the organ
materials - books, sheet music etc (assuming the parish paid)
time - because must funerals are in the regular church operation time

in order to operate what is effectively a side business.

Now, if you are salaried but less than full time, it would be appropriate to be paid for additional hours if these are agreed in advance with your management. It could even be that these hours are paid at a relatively high rate. And you might even have a contract that lets you use the church facilities (eg the organ) for private teaching work.

But if you are full time, then the time you spend on funerals IS time that is not available for other parts of your job.

If you really need the side income to support your lifestyle, I'd suggest contracting through local funeral directors and wedding planners to play in other places.

Pax,

Since weddings and funerals are sacramental celebrations, surely playing for funerals and weddings isn't a "side business"?

@CCooze unless you and the priest have planned to slaughter exactly 20 people a year and factored that into your contract for the year, a funeral is extra work. It’s unplanned and not what you were expecting to do on Tuesday and you still have to rehearse the choir and type up the bulletin and practice and etc. Just like in any other profession – extra work means extra pay. Try telling the painter that since you hired him to paint the kitchen, he may as well do the living room too for free.

@Gamba, I don't think it's the standard everywhere for a full choir to sing at weddings and funerals, thus not requiring the director to rehearse individual "cantors."

Pax - you've chosen a pretty bad point of comparison. Weddings and funerals are not a "side business" that the musician runs. As if I could advertise - "Hire me to play your funeral/wedding - I'll throw in the cathedral for free!" What a silly idea. They are sacramental celebrations that the Church is essentially obligated to host (wacky/non-parishioner requests aside) and provide staff for (musician, custodian, altar servers, wedding coordinator, clergy) on top of the regular duties of all those people and regardless of whether we are in a busy season of the year. That's one reason the clergy usually get a stipend/gift, especially for weddings. And that's another reason I like getting paid through the church - it makes everything clear. The family pays a fee to the parish, which covers all of the costs of running the event, which they are asking the Church to host.

In addition, as others have noted, funerals and weddings very often fall on "days off" (in my case, Friday is my weekday off, and funerals are most often Fridays; weddings are almost always Friday or Saturday).

In addition, the stipend system allows other organists to be hired when necessary. Or, if you have multiple salaried musicians in a big music program, you are paid for this extra work in direct proportion to how much you do. Which is only just.

I'll also point out that, for weddings, it is very often the church that is bringing in extra income. In fact, for landmark churches that are in demand for weddings, the non-parishioner fee is a critical source of income. I remember reading the bulletin at Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral once, and the rector was lamenting the fact that many couples were choosing to get married elsewhere in the past year - and explicitly in his bulletin letter he noted this financial angle. With something like 200 weddings a year, at a "profit" of around $1000 each to the parish, weddings were a critical part of the operating budget. With that many weddings, the stipends were also a critical part of the overall compensation of the music staff.

I have to ask, Pax, if you are actually a professional musician who does this for a living. For those of us that are, it is well-known that wedding/funeral stipends are absolutely standard practice, and a critical part of our compensation. In the past I have been on the receiving end of specious arguments against the practice, as well as outright dishonesty from clergy, and lost thousands of dollars of income as a result, all while working 7 days a week to accommodate my regular work hours and the extra liturgies. It's very important to our profession to stay on top of this and not contribute to confusion.

Also: "If you really need the side income to support your lifestyle," - what a strange, snide comment. What are you getting at here? Since stipends are absolutely standard practice, we keep this in mind when negotiating our salaries, and estimate a certain amount when deciding whether to accept a job. I'll refrain from further ranting until you explain yourself.

A side job would be if the organist was running his own funeral mass business out of the church. It’s competing businesses that employers like to stifle. If you were saying your own masses, then there would be a problem.

Also, letting the music director use equipment and facilities for side jobs can be a huge benefit to the church: teaching organ, piano, and voice lessons should benefit the parish because hopefully parishioners are some of the students and the knowledge imparted will benefit parish liturgies.

Funerals and Weddings should not be treated the same as far as financial arrangements go.

For funerals I do not 'require' a fee or stipend, but leave that to the family... it is not a good practice to 'charge money' for providing music for a funeral. That being said, it has usually been the practice that the church for which I work recommends that a stipend is given to the church and that the musician(s) would usually receive some recompense from that. The amount is left to the decision of church (pastor) and family. I believe this is the most charitable way to handle monetary matters with funerals.

On the other hand, I have been asked to play and cantor for weddings... often a fee which is reasonable for services rendered for myself as cantor and organist.

Then again, I have been asked to compose and arrange music for elaborate weddings, including a small chamber orchestra, creating and mailing arrangements out in advance for musicians flying in the same day and rehearsing two hours before the wedding. Fees for those events can run into the thousands of dollars depending upon complexity. If a family desires music with this kind of grandeur, it should be seen as an opportunity to make most beautiful the liturgy ...sparing no expense. We primarily do not do this for the money, but for the glory of God and for building up the body of Christ.

The musicians are akin to the Levitical order, and there is nothing wrong with receiving recompense for one's highly valued and unique offering to a Sacramental event. Really, is there anything on earth that deserves better?

...And yes, the money should go directly to the musicians. I usually recommend the proper fee for each musician (with consultation of each), soloist, cantor, organist, etc. which is all paid individually by the family to each musician in the form of a check. Those funds are claimed as income and taxes should be paid by each musician if they are handling their finances in an upright manner.

My two cents... (sometimes I give three).