It sounds like they've had issues with directors either 1. refusing to play funerals altogether, or 2. flaking out on them (or just generally not being available and the parish left high and dry for musicians for funerals). Either way, I agree it's good that they're being honest about it, but I think it is an aggressive and punitive policy: "you have to make every funeral, or we're coming after you."

Recently I was asked with my new choir (detailed account in Suddenly I got my 'own' choir(s) for a funeral. Completely normal affair, except that nobody (including myself) thought of including this eventuality in my ad interim contract.

Just yesterday I happened to discuss this with our music director; I am curious what pastor and the parish coucil will propose in the job opening to come after summer.

I have seen this before - rarely, but I have seen it - and it seemed to me those parishes were looking to refill the position within a year or so. Everywhere I've played, funerals are additional stipends paid by the parish (which is usually paid by the funeral home, which is usually paid by the deceased's family). Weddings are sometimes different in that you may be an independent contractor for such purposes or else, like funerals, the parish pays you out of what the couple has paid the parish. However, in any event, these should also be additional stipends on top of salary because no one can plan for exactly how many of each you're going to have in a given year (unlike, for example, "special services" that usually occur with some regularity - holy days, Holy Week, First Communion, Confirmation, etc.).

This is actually more common than may appear. As some stated above, it is nice that they are honest about it from the outset.

In parishes that I've seen this, although not first-hand, it is mostly a ploy used to boost pay or fund the position. Rather than paying someone, for example, $35k, they can advertise the position as $42.5k, which is much more marketable. On average one funeral per week at $150 to the church would equal $7500.

If the parish is younger and funerals are less frequent, it may not be as much of an issue as 3-5 funerals per week.

Kathy is good at mind reading

That said, were that scenario accurate, I would still carve out reimbursement for funerals that occur on vacation/holidays/sick time.

Lots of good comments here.

The statement in itself just seems a little restrictive to me at first glance, but perhaps in practice there is some wiggle room. I would hope that if the DM is granted permission to go on vacation next week, and then there are 3 funerals next week, that they don't return to work with a bill for somewhere between $300-$500 on their desk.

Having been actually lied to about funeral stipends before in job negotiations, I suppose I appreciate the honesty. That said, the honesty would make it clear to me that this is not a good/well-thought-out position. It goes back to the idea that we don't really do anything anyway when we're not playing Masses - so anytime we're at work is fair game to expect playing. I've even found some combativeness about this issue - as if funerals give them a chance to "get their money's worth" out of the music director. I don't want to work for people who think that way about my profession.

Side note - at the parish where I was lied to, parishioners were still charged for my services; I just wasn't given the stipend. Convenient!

Just a response to Kathy's points, these are good points; but it's not "just one Mass" in many parishes - it's a regular, randomized disruption to your work schedule and days off (and thus life and family/work balance).
-All of the parishioner contribution/salary points you make would apply to weddings as well.
- Although these duties (sometimes) fall during work hours, there is other work to be done during work hours.

Nathan K. - You raise an important issue. Typically, parishes inflate wedding and funeral numbers during job interviews to make it look as if you can depend on an extra "x" amount of salary that the parish doesn't have to come up with. I suppose if the parish in question in the original post would average numbers and actually pay that amount (rounded up) every year in salary for funerals, as a 'free' service to parishioners, I might be more interested in their position.

A parish where I was DM had 6 funerals one year, and the next year had 43 before May. So you never know...

Laugh in their face and run! Those that buckle to their demands are guilty of making it harder for musicians to receive fair compensation for their time and talent. Period.

Church music has always been kind of a job held outside of the laws of the land... How one would actually calculate the amount of hours a church musician works would be truly mind boggling and confusing for all involved. And truthfully I like church music being kind of like the old west... nobody really knows what's going on and we make our own rules. It's a beautiful world.

I'm glad you think that, matthewj, but that doesn't square with reality.

In a diocese where a colleague of mine works, and where I worked as a part-timer, the civil lawyers for the diocese first determined back in 2014 that any musician (organist, cantor, instrumentalist) working for a parish could no longer be treated as an "independent subcontractor," regardless if they sang/played once or multiple times. This is based on an NRLB ruling that determined that because those particular individuals worked at a specific time on a specific day and was directed in what work (i.e., what music they would sing/play) they would perform, they by law could not be classified as a subcontractor and therefore had to be registered as an employee of the parish (complete with filing of W-4, fingerprinting, compliance with safe environment policies and other federal regulations) and placed on the parish payroll. In the parish I know of, this meant that even the brass players that were hired once a year to play for Christmas Midnight Mass had to be registered as an employee of the parish, with all the paperwork involved. This even included substitute organists that might be hired for a "one-off." Apparently, based on this ruling, dating back to 2012 (or thereabouts), the "$600 1099-MISC" rule no longer applied, nor applies now.

More recently, the same diocese has determined that with the new rule issued by the Dept. of Labor, effective now, anyone making under $50,000/yr must be considered hourly and therefore entitled to "overtime pay" if their work exceeds 40 hrs/wk. This means that most of us, who I'll wager do NOT make over $50,000/yr can (and in the case of the diocese in question) WILL be classified as hourly, not salaried, and will have to fill out time sheets and will be paid by the hour and not for the work performed. Further, because of the narrowly-written definition of "manager", "administrator" or "professional", very few, if any, parish music directors would qualify as "exempt" under the new regulations.

Because these new labor regulations will be tied in with benefits, wages/hours and Obamacare, compliance will be mandatory, lest the Church run the risk of losing its tax-exempt status.

We need to be paying attention to these matters, and quit engaging in a cavalier attitude that the Church can Do as it Pleases.

In my own current diocese, where I'm classified as 28 hrs/wk (3/4 time) with benefits, we're being told that 3/4 time is being reclassified as 30 hrs/wk (rather than 28 hrs/wk), and that those who work less than 30 hrs/wk will no longer qualify for benefits. If the diocese chooses to follow federal labor regulations, nobody who is salaried at less than $50,000 will be considered hourly, be required to file time sheets and be paid accordingly; they also will be non-exempt and not qualify for benefits.

It ain't the beautiful world you think it is. In fact, it's getting uglier by the day.

I fear that church musicians will be treated no better than the janitors, paid the federal minimum wage, get no benefits, and have their hours limited.

This is sinister.

If a DM makes over $50k, then they're legitimately considered "salaried" and they won't have to fill out a time card and their pay will be their annual salary divided over equal bimonthly payments.

Otherwise, all bets are off.

Read up on this, folks. It's really scary. According to some articles I've read regarding the tech sector, things like answering emails or texts away from the office can't be counted as "on the clock" activities. So, no more working from home on things like answering emails after hours or working up a worship aid on your computer at home. It all has to be "in house." How about practicing at home? Nope, not any more, if the law is to be correctly interpreted.

As with all fed regs, your mileage may vary.

It's hard to tell how any of this will actually shake out. But what is clear is that the federal government does not understand, nor have they ever understood, how artists and musicians work.

You may recall that Nancy Pelosi, in speaking publicly about the virtues of the ACA, said that if you were an artist, you could continue pursuing your artistic ambitions without fear of losing your health insurance benefits.

Apparently, she wasn't quite accurate in her portrayal of the facts, and the far-reaching effects of Obama's labor policies are yet to be fully realized, insofar as how they impact our work as sacred musicians.

Kathy conjectured about the thoughts of pastors:

-- The parishioner who died and/or his/her family has been contributing to the parish and thus paying parish salaries

But this is fairly often not true. Many departed are people who have been away from the parish for years, perhaps due to illness or a move. It's beautiful that they want (or the family wants) to reaffirm their connection with their old parish community at their funeral, though. The families: well, sometimes they seem unfamiliar with the rite of Mass, to the extent that they need to told when to stand or kneel.

In addition to the thoughts Kathy proposed, I would add another consideration that may be crossing pastors' minds:

-- Undertakers routinely charge an organist fee to the families, and I'd rather have the parish take it than let it go directly to the organist. Just one funeral per week would give the parish an extra $10K for the budget.

I will reiterate: YOU CANNOT SERVE MAMMON AND GOD AT THE SAME TIME.

But I am sure Mammon pays better! ;-)

The extra pay for funerals and weddings is really for the extra time involved. Most weddings are on Saturdays, so the pay is warranted. Therefore, if the funerals were guaranteed to fall within the normal working hours, I could agree to it. If they were extraneous, I would expect to be paid extra. The logic behind this is that funerals are a service of the church. Therefore, I would insist in the negotiations that there be one funeral plan for all funerals, and that I would be the one planning said music; no requests accepted. That sounds harsh when people are grieving, but when framed in the right way, can be comforting to the family.

I just have to reiterate - to my mind, the root issue with poor funeral stipend policies is the perception that we don't do anything but play and run rehearsals anyway (we only work about 5-10 hours a week!). So we may as well be playing funerals during work hours. That mentality really strikes me as profound professional disrespect (and/or ignorance), and speaks to a larger issue of education and communication between clergy and musician. In my discussions on this point I try to make clear that funerals typically just "displace" my work to my own time (or displace tasks so only immediately necessary tasks get done this week - that planning or prep or practice or composition I had planned gets put on the back burner). And when a funeral comes up during work hours, guess who stays late at work to make up that lost practice time before Sunday? And even if the funeral is "during work hours", guess who is on the phone outside work hours trying to find a weekday morning cantor with one day's notice and get music to them? Now, I'm not really complaining about all this (I fully understand the variable nature of life as a church musician). BUT the weddings and funerals at least need to be stipended to account in some way for their variable, unpredictable and disruptive effect on my work, life, and scheduling. A week with three or four funerals may be a real grind, and cause me to get behind in various tasks, but at least I take home a little extra money in compensation.

Doug - I was going to say something similar. If we really want to offer grieving families something, we should offer them the Church's funeral liturgy, done beautifully, rather than expecting them to pick everything themselves. Giving them a $100 discount pales in comparison.

Finally, people need to understand (even some in this organization) that to play funerals for free is harmful to the profession. You set a precedent that hurts your colleagues, and ultimately hurts the parish and those grieving families as soon as you move on along your merry, thoughtless way and there is no music budget for the next funeral. Speaking from experience here.

Well said, Jared. I was in a situation recently where the job parameters were negotiated, and then changed with regard to funerals after I started the job. Because I did not have a contract, there was not much I could do about it. I went along with the plan (one could either say I was kind, or I simply acquiesced because I didn't want conflict - your choice). The logic was that funerals were liturgies of the church, but somehow the pastor wasn't convinced of that logic before I took the job.

On a more positive note - I was in another situation in the past where something similar happened: from the job negotiations, I expected to receive the extra income, but the pastor had some second thoughts about that. However, it was handled well - he did not force anything, asked my thoughts about it, and completely understood when I reminded him that we had already made an agreement about it.

There is a larger issue at stake here: it is a big problem that many dioceses do not offer contracts, and so the employee is subject to the whims of the pastor, even after agreements are made. And a snarky comment: rather than spending their time trying to overturn legal decisions, bishops could actually see that their lay employees are treated fairly, and not penalized in their health care plans for having children, just because the elderly infirm celibate clergy drive up the costs. They could also come to an agreement that allows lay employees to actually keep accumulating benefits when they move to another diocese. The priests may be bound to a diocese, but we are not. I've heard a lot of good talk about the importance of family life, but behind the scenes it is often not backed up with reality. Expecting your musician to be available 24/7 to play for funerals with no pay, putting a major dent into family time, is an example of that.

3) What if the plague hits the city and there are literally funerals every day, multiple funerals everyday, and this poor person can never again get a day off?

This is a total red herring. If the clergy get a day off (and they will), then so will the musicians.

I don't see anything wrong with the requirement, provided the full-time salary is reasonable. If you find that there are so many funerals that it's impossible to get anything else done, then you need to re-negotiate the expectations of what else you're expected to be doing.

In the past, I have gladly offered my wedding services free of charge - if they are willing to get married in the context of the Sunday Mass, and thus submit themselves to the liturgy of the day. So far, nobody has taken me up on that. The only time I've even seen that happen was a lovely couple of very modest means who had been legally married (for financial reasons), but wanted it blessed by the church, so did the convalidation during a Sunday Mass. One of the nicest marriage rites I've ever witnessed...

I have played funerals for free a handful of times over the past decade or so. Those times include funerals for:
--14-year-old daughter of the school secretary, who was in 8th grade at the parish school when she died in a car accident
--father of school admissions director
--husband of parish custodian
--just one time when the family insisted on a 7:30pm Friday funeral and then stiffed everyone on the bills. The parish eventually cut me an extra check for that one so that I wasn't out a Friday night AND the money. Playing a funeral for free requires exceptional circumstances.

All that said, extra stipends for the organist are standard operating procedure when it comes to weddings and funerals. I count on that money every year -- we're not getting rich on the backs of funeral families/wedding couples!

I've been open in my willingness to do these for less/no stipend - especially funerals - depending on circumstances. The one time the office asked me to do a funeral without pay, the family still left an envelope on the piano.

It's still bizarre that such an expectation (non-stipend funerals) would be part of any church's job description.

Catholics aren't allowed to get married on Sundays.

While it is true that some dioceses have particular laws which disallow marriages on Sundays, the general law of the Church has no such restriction. And the rite of marriage may even be celebrated during regularly-scheduled Sunday Masses in Ordinary Time.