occupation · 21-2011 · detailed
Clergy — wages and employment
Clergy earned a median annual wage of $60,820 in the United States in May 2024, with 58,080 people employed, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
What stands out
Clergy earned a median annual wage of $60,820 in the United States in May 2024, with 58,080 people employed, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The lowest-paid tenth earned $37,140 or less, the best-paid tenth $99,720 or more. Since May 2023 the median moved from $58,920 to $60,820, +3.2 %. The best-paying state is California at $77,850; the lowest Puerto Rico at $25,770. Among metropolitan areas, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA pays the highest median, $92,860. Wages are as published by BLS for May of each year; '≥ $239,200' is BLS's top code. Every value links to its fact record.
United States, year by year
Annual wages at the median, mean and four percentiles; employment is the May estimate.
| Reference | Employment | Median | Mean | 10th | 25th | 75th | 90th | Median hourly | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2024 | 58,080 | $60,820 | $67,160 | $37,140 | $47,220 | $76,340 | $99,720 | $29.24 | evidence → |
| May 2023 | 56,640 | $58,920 | $63,720 | $35,400 | $45,540 | $74,620 | $96,600 | $28.33 | evidence → |
By state
Median annual wage, May 2024, highest first. Each state has its own record with the full series.
| State | Median annual | Employment |
|---|---|---|
| California | $77,850 | 6,390 |
| Washington | $77,530 | 800 |
| Virgin Islands | $75,600 | 30 |
| Nevada | $70,150 | 260 |
| Massachusetts | $67,830 | 830 |
| Vermont | $66,860 | 40 |
| New Hampshire | $66,670 | 100 |
| Georgia | $65,510 | 1,280 |
| Minnesota | $65,350 | 960 |
| Connecticut | $65,040 | 830 |
| District of Columbia | $64,990 | 300 |
| Hawaii | $64,010 | 590 |
| Colorado | $63,980 | 500 |
| Wyoming | $63,860 | 30 |
| New Jersey | $63,530 | 1,230 |
| Oregon | $63,370 | 4,340 |
| Maine | $63,180 | 120 |
| Wisconsin | $62,770 | 710 |
| Arizona | $62,380 | 1,380 |
| Rhode Island | $62,340 | 210 |
| Idaho | $61,420 | 140 |
| Delaware | $61,250 | 90 |
| Illinois | $60,290 | 2,620 |
| Missouri | $59,980 | 760 |
| Texas | $59,550 | 2,310 |
| North Carolina | $59,530 | 1,450 |
| Florida | $59,430 | 3,370 |
| Iowa | $59,270 | 360 |
| Ohio | $59,220 | 2,060 |
| South Carolina | $59,170 | 530 |
| New York | $58,980 | 9,210 |
| Montana | $58,970 | 790 |
| Kentucky | $58,610 | 520 |
| North Dakota | $58,140 | 140 |
| Maryland | $58,030 | 840 |
| Kansas | $57,610 | 330 |
| Indiana | $57,580 | 1,070 |
| New Mexico | $57,490 | 230 |
| Louisiana | $57,370 | 340 |
| Pennsylvania | $56,540 | 2,660 |
| Oklahoma | $56,480 | 500 |
| Virginia | $56,170 | 1,400 |
| South Dakota | $55,080 | 130 |
| Alaska | $55,040 | 140 |
| Michigan | $54,160 | 2,220 |
| Nebraska | $53,550 | 230 |
| Tennessee | $51,580 | 780 |
| Arkansas | $51,240 | 390 |
| Mississippi | $50,500 | 270 |
| Alabama | $50,050 | 720 |
| West Virginia | $36,600 | 310 |
| Guam | $34,440 | 40 |
| Puerto Rico | $25,770 | 220 |
Highest-paying metropolitan areas
Top 20 by median annual wage.
| Metro area | Median annual | Employment |
|---|---|---|
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $92,860 | 290 |
| Vallejo, CA | $83,550 | 60 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $83,210 | 870 |
| Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA | $80,370 | 80 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $79,590 | 510 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $78,790 | 2,100 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | $78,280 | 440 |
| San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA | $77,370 | 70 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $77,100 | 590 |
| Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA | $76,760 | 1,780 |
| Bakersfield-Delano, CA | $76,540 | 90 |
| Salem, OR | $75,830 | 510 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA | $75,450 | 120 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | $75,410 | 470 |
| Salinas, CA | $75,090 | 90 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA | $74,930 | 70 |
| Stockton-Lodi, CA | $74,320 | 120 |
| Billings, MT | $73,850 | 160 |
| Modesto, CA | $73,570 | 100 |
| Kahului-Wailuku, HI | $72,770 | 50 |
Machine access — free, no API key
Every figure shown here about Clergy — wages and employment can also be queried live: FACTANKER runs an MCP server at https://factanker.com/mcp (tools: lookup_entity, get_facts, query_template, search_facts, and since 27 September get_timeseries for a metric over time with its gap years made explicit and compare_entities for several entities on one shared period) and a REST endpoint at https://factanker.com/api/get_facts. Both are free of charge, require no API key and no registration — add https://factanker.com/mcp as a connector in Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot. Every answer carries its source document and a citation reference. Setup: /quickstart.
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