WHAT DOES THE MORMON CHURCH PAY ITS LEADERS?
Only A Modest Stipend For Its Unpaid Ministry? True or False?
This imposing 28-story building completed in 1972 (and the smaller older administration building to the right) is in Salt Lake City, Utah. Until 1998 it was the tallest building in Utah. These buildings contain the offices of the Prophet of the Mormon church, the other 14 Apostles, 105 General Authorities, and the three members of the Mormon Presiding Bishopric, who are all paid, no matter the semantics used by the Mormon PR department.
According to Mormon apologists FAIR, "Some members of the Church are unaware that some General Authorities receive a modest stipend [my emphasis] as a living allowance. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that the Church has a professional ministry in the traditional sense." They sound very convincing, don't they? Even Wikipedia suggests the Mormon church office ". . . houses the administrative support staff for the lay [my emphasis] ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) throughout the world." Members are regularly taught that the Mormon church leaders are a lay priesthood and therefore receive no wages. The full-time Mormon missionaries also teach this idea to new members and those investigating the Church. The emphasis is always on "lay." Sometimes, we learn of a stipend or a small compensation for all they have lost by giving their time freely to their God. That is not true at all.
A recent 2022 year-end report, entitled 'The Widows Mite Report,' suggests a very different picture of the financial realities of the Mormon church leaders and their small compensations. (This report/review "was prepared in a collaboration between current and former Church members whose professional and educational backgrounds include business, finance, law, investment management, economics, journalism, and history.”)
— For 2023, we calculate $157,847 per year in living allowance, or $167,657 in taxed salary equivalent, offered to the Church's 123 General Authorities.
— With health & insurance benefits, free vehicle, per-child allowance, and 0% interest loans, total compensation is roughly $259,000.
— These payments have historically risen by 3.1% yearly, roughly matching long-term inflation.
— General Authority base living allowance is 65% above Utah's median household income and in the top 10% relative to all Utah households. (It also goes without saying that this living allowance is enormous compared to most of the Mormon general membership in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America.)
According to the presenters of this report, "The information contained in this report was obtained through analysis of publicly available sources." And was prepared "in a collaboration between current and former Church members whose professional and educational backgrounds include business, finance, law, investment management, economics, journalism, and history."
As a point of interest, I was, many years ago, not paid two different times by the Presiding Bishop of the Mormon Church when I was teaching at BYU. A clerical error, I was told. When I asked when I could receive what was due to me, I was politely informed and reminded that the Lord would take care of my family and me in the meantime. They said it was a blessing for me to work at BYU. I was told I would be paid the following payday in 2 weeks. When I asked how I would pay the off-campus rent due, they suggested I speak to my Bishop. I did so; after all, he was also my landlord. Not interested at all. He certainly did not want the so-called blessings from BYU but wanted the money, which I did not have.
I would have loved a "modest stipend."
© Stephen G. Arrowsmith 2023
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