2019 Pastoral Compensation Information
In this email and its attachments you will find the 2019 Recommended Salary and Benefit information from the Church of the Brethren Office of Ministry and the Pastoral Compensation and Benefits Advisory Committee. This is being sent to pastors and board chairpersons, please be sure to share with other leadership that may need the information as a part of contract negotiation or budget preparation.
Attached, by clicking on the item name, you will find:
Below is the link to the contract renewal. As the Cash Salary Guidelines document indicates, congregations that do not provide a group plan or are not eligible for reimbursable health plans are encouraged to increase the base cash salary by ⅔'s of the cost of the minister's health insurance premium.
This document is also available as a fillable pdf
I do want to encourage your congregation to take a serious look at the Short Term Disability Insurance that is offered through Brethren Benefit Trust. The cost of adding this coverage for the pastor is based on salary and age, but it is unlikely to cost more than $200 for a year's coverage. This coverage begins at two weeks off of work and pays 60% of salary. This will result in help for the congregation in savings as they may need to provide pulpit supply or even interim leadership. This will help the pastor in providing paid coverage if they have used their personal leave days before reaching Long Term Disability. While we hope that this is never needed, in PSWD this year we had at least two situations where this coverage would have been of value to the pastor and the congregation.
If a congregation and pastor are considering changing the agreed upon time of employment (down to part-time or reducing the agreed upon part-time amount) the District Executive Minister should be consulted and be a part of the renegotiation conversation. Please be in touch with me to work on questions like this as soon as possible.
An additional option for churches who do not provide insurance to explore is to offer the new
Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Account (QSEHRA). An information sheet is attached
here, and if you would like to explore this option please be in touch with me and I can share more documents including a sample QSEHRA Policy that can be adopted. These plans need to be established by September 30 of this year to be used in 2019.
If there is additional information that we can be helpful with, please be in touch with me. Please share this information with your Board or Personnel Chairpersons responsible for working with pastoral compensation. And please take time to complete the appropriate renewal agreement and send a copy to the District Office to be placed in the minister's file by the end of January 2019.
Peace and all good,
Russ Matteson, District Executive Minister
