Salary
Average Salary: $43,950
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $1,834,825
Well, well, well. You clicked on salary. For a charitable and pious person, you sure seem interested in how much money you're getting.
We're going to give it to you straight: Your salary may be enough to be able to get your robes dry-cleaned, but it's not a whole lot. The median salary is about $43,000 a year. But you also have to take into account the huge gap between a normal priest and the Burning-Man equivalent of a priest. On one end of the spectrum you have traditional Catholic priests. You literally take a vow of poverty to be a Catholic priest. You go into it accepting that you'll have no money. And the little money they do give you, you're actually expected to donate.
![Just picture this guy giving out the Eucharist. Are you telling me you wouldn’'t watch that on TV?](https://media1.shmoop.com/images/career/Baby_ginger_monkey2.png)
On the other hand, you have the priests who make $150,000 a year at the megachurches...and up to $400,000 a year if they can get some monkeys to be altar boys.
$43,000 may seem small compared to the $400,000 the big guys make...but don't forget: All of your housing, health care, transportation, and travel is covered. They even throw in a free funeral and burial.