American Conference of Cantors Resolves to Remedy Gender Pay Gap

The American Conference of Cantors (ACC) has issued a resolution supporting equal pay for equal work for Reform cantors.

While the pay gap for Reform clergy is still narrower than the national gender pay gap, inequity still exists.

In its landmark study released in 2012, the CCAR found a salary gap in the Reform rabbinate including that female rabbis earned less than their male counterparts as senior and solo rabbis.

For Reform cantors a gender-based inequity continues, a hard pill to swallow particularly for the ACC whose membership is 65% female. According to the 2016 salary survey conducted by the ACC, a full-time female cantor will earn only 86% of her male counterpart’s salary in 2016-2017, which represents only a slight narrowing of the pay gap that was last reported in 2012-2013.

“There is simply no excuse in 2017 for not paying our female cantors and rabbis the same as their male counterparts for equal work,” said ACC President Cantor Steven Weiss. “For the Reform movement, which was built upon a deep-rooted commitment to justice, egalitarianism and inclusivity, to be guilty of inequity in any form, particularly against our female counterparts serving as spiritual leaders in our community, this is tantamount to a transgression of the highest order.”