PAYROLL POLICY
Support Raising Staff
The CMM uses a needs based approach to determining salary for staff raising support. All staff are assigned a base payroll rate based on the on whether they are joining staff on their own or with a spouse. As of January 1 2017, the salary bases are $2,900 for singles and $4,600 for couples. As each family has different needs and different standards of living, this base amount can be increased or decreased by 15%. Furthermore, there are other allowable adjustments which can be made to the salary amount. These adjustments are listed below.
Children - For each dependent child (this includes children in college), a staff may increase their payroll goal by $400/ month. Also, staff may increase their payroll by the sum of their children's ages multiplied by $25. This adjustment is divided by two for staff whose spouse is working outside the CMM. (Ex. John & Tisha have 3 children who are 5, 8 & 12. They may add $1,825 to their payroll). When children move out from under their parent’s provision, staff may choose to reduce their payroll or keep it the same since many expenses do not necessarily decrease. The maximum age for the "sum of their ages" calculation is 22 years of age.
Retirement - Staff are encouraged to increase their payroll by up to the IRS limit for an individual, 18,500 annually for 2018. These funds can be contributed internally to the CMM's 403(b) plan or handled externally by the staff. Staff who have opted out of Social Security may request permission to exceed this limit.
College Debt - If a staff has college debt, they are encouraged to budget this amount into their payroll and support raising goals to pay off this debt.
Children's education - Families may raise up to an additional $500/month/child (maximum of $1,500) for education expenses, both current and future, for their children. (International staff are allowed to raise all funds needed to place children in international English school)
All support raising staff must first complete a personal budget using the Support Goal Worksheet. Then, with the assistance of their team leader, review their budget to ensure their estimated income, based on the above, will meet their estimated expenses. If a staff has reviewed their budget with their team leader and their estimated expenses are still greater than their estimated income, an increase may be approved by CMM leadership.
Payroll During Candidacy
During your candidacy, you may request payroll in any amount up to your approved payroll in your support goal. To request your initial payroll, submit a Payroll Change Request Form . If a staff does not submit this form during any given month, they will be issued the same amount as in the prior month as long as their ministry account contains adequate funds. After submitting your initial payroll request, you may increase the request in subsequent months up the limit mentioned above. You may not, however, request a smaller amount.
Non-Support Raising Staff
The compensation for a non-support raising role will be determined through conversations between CMM leadership, the team leader, and the potential staff. While CMM does not have a set compensation plan for non-support raising staff, the compensation level will be based, but not necessarily equivalent to, on the base salary level of support raising staff at the time of appointment.
Staff Agreements and "At Will" Employment
The purpose of the CMM Staff Agreements with commitment for lengths of time express the desire of the CMM and the staffer to maintain a long-term, fruitful working relationship. The expressed desire and commitment to stay in their ministry assignment for 3 years (for example), allows teams to have healthy continuity and planning, a sense of security for donors who are anticipating this ministry worker committing to several years, and justifies the time and investment the CMM has in training and developing staff during their initial few years. However, these Staff Agreements are not Employee Contracts, nor are they legally binding by either party. While there are transition and severance benefits for those who complete their period of time they committed to and depart on good terms, the employee is not legally bound to stay with the CMM, nor is the CMM legally bound to employ them. The working relationship is "at will" for both parties.
Payroll Change Request:
As our payroll is based on family size and need, there are certain situations that constitute a staff temporarily or permanently increasing or decreasing their payroll. All payroll change requests are subject to approval by CMM leadership and generally must fall within CMM established limits of minimum and maximum salary range. However, there if a staff feels their financial situation constitutes a payroll outside of our salary range, special consideration may be made by CMM leadership. Please see below for explanations on what constitutes a temporary and permanent payroll change and acceptable reasons for a staff to increase or decrease their payroll.
Temporary: A temporary payroll change takes effect from two to six months. Any request extending longer would be considered a permanent change.
Acceptable Reasons
Preparing to launch to long term location
Generally, when staff launch to a new long term position, especially internationally, they will move out of their apartment/house months before the official launch. During this period, staff may submit a request to reduce their payroll to meet their actual needs.
Payroll for initial support-raising assignment
Staff occasionally will need to draw a payroll during their initial support raising assignment. Please refer to the Payroll Policy tab for further information.
Permanent: A permanent payroll change takes effect for any period longer than four months.
Change in financial situation
Whether it’s bringing home a new born or having to adjust your spending for increasing prices, a family's financial situation is always subject to change.
Launching to a new team
One of the realities of having teams placed all over the world is each team’s cost of living is likely to differ. If you are launching to a new team, you may need to either increase or decrease your living expenses depending on that team’s location.
Internal Donations
If a staff decides to support a co-worker, the CMM can make an internal transfer from one ministry account to another. Staff are not required to complete a new Staff Salary Workbook for this request.
NOTE: No staff will be allowed to decrease payroll with the expectation they will recoup this loss of Income from a ministry expense reimbursement. This is wage re-characterization and is strictly disallowed by the IRS.
Steps To Submit a Payroll Change Request
If a staff determines they are eligible for a payroll change, they should follow the below steps to ensure their request is processed in a timely manner.
Discuss payroll change request with team leader, International Ops Director, or finance team.
Submit the Payroll Change Request Form by the 24th of the month at 5:00 pm. Late submissions will not be processed until the next month.
Temporary changes do not require the submission of a new Staff Salary Worksheet
Permanent changes DO require the submission of a new Staff Salary Worksheet. (unless otherwise noted above.)
If approved, the payroll change will go into effect in the month submitted.
Splitting Pay Between Spouses:
CMM allows couples who are actively working on CMM activities to split the approved salary for the family. Before initiating this type of split pay, please consider the benefits and consequences.
Requirements for Splitting Pay:
Both spouses must have an active ministry assignment with a job description with work duties that average out to more than 10 hours per week.
While the CMM honors and supports the role of full-time mothers and homeschooling mothers, the IRS will not allow us to count these as ministry assignments for the CMM.
Assisting in support raising and communicating with donors counts towards ministries duties.
Team meetings, ministry travel, and CMM events count toward ministry duties.
Spouses must receive at least $500 per month.
Factors to Assist in this Decision
Long Term Disability Insurance
The CMM has long-term disability insurance that provides benefits who are disabled for longer than 6 months and no longer able to work. The “loss of wages” benefit is 60% of one’s former salary.
Benefit to Splitting: If one’s wife became disabled, then you may be eligible for a disability benefit. If the husband remained on staff with the CMM, then you’d have one’s CMM salary plus the disability benefit.
Drawback of Splitting: If a couple splits their pay, and the primary CMM employee is disabled which leads to them leaving staff or being unable to raise ministry support, then the disability benefit would be lower, because the 60% of lost wages would be from a smaller salary amount.
Medicare and Disability Government Benefits
If an individual has earned 40 credits (10 years of employment), then they are eligible for government Social Security benefits, disability benefits, and Medicare (government health insurance).
The same pros and cons listed above for the CMM’s Long Term Disability insurance applies for government provided disability benefits.
Benefit of Splitting: If you get divorced within the first 10 years of marriage, then spouse not earning an income would not be eligible for any social security or Medicare benefits.
Drawbacks of Splitting: You will generally earn less from social security benefits if you split your salary because you may lose the additional 50% spouse benefit or lose a portion of the benefits when one spouse dies.
Transition Pay, Benefits & Retirement
Transition Compensation:
The CMM allows transition compensation of 3 months for both payroll and benefits after the accepted resignation date for staff who fulfill the terms of their staff-acceptance agreement. Staff who resign without fulfilling their staff-acceptance agreement terms, are dismissed from their ministry role by the CMM, or who never reported to their long-term assignment shall have a transition period of 1 month after the resignation or termination date for payroll and insurance. Insurance costs must either be paid by funds in the staff member's ministry account or paid by the former employee to the CMM, otherwise the insurance coverage will be cancelled. CMM does not participate in COBRA continuation of coverage.
Residual Ministry Funds:
In accordance with IRS regulations, all tax-deductible donations made to the CMM are fully owned and controlled by the CMM. Upon a staff persons departure, the CMM may consider granting a portion of gifts raised to that staff's new Great Commission ministry. While the CMM desires to launch our staff well into their new ministry, ultimately the sole discretion and control in determining the final use of any funds reside with CMM leadership.
Retirement:
Part of being fully funded is putting aside funds for a day when your family will not be receiving a "normal" paycheck. This season may come due to age, employment status, or a special assignment from the Lord.
For this reason, part of the CMM's salary calculation allows for staff to raise up to the IRS maximum for an individual* to go towards saving for that season of life. All staff are required to include a minimum contribution in their support goal. Single staff are required to budget $150 per month. Married staff are required to budget $300 per month.
The CMM has set up a group retirement plan through Guidestone. Guidestone is a respected Christian financial institution that serves hundreds of mission organizations, churches, and is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. It is a non-profit corporation, and many of its staff are former ministers. Guidestone is our sole provider for 403b employer sponsored investment options.
Staff have two options for retirement savings.
Contribute funds to CMM's group retirement policy through Guidestone
Take the funds raised as part of monthly payroll and contribute them to some other investment vehicle on your own (i.e. IRA, Roth IRA, etc.)
Enrolling:
Fill out an Enrollment form. Follow these instructions.
Fill in your personal information
Choose your funds
There are three different options
Date Target Funds
Asset Allocation Funds
Build your own funds
You can find more information about these options on Guidestone’s Website.
Choose your contribution type and the amount you’d like to contribute.
Tax-Sheltered – These contributions are made pre-income tax and are taxed when they are withdrawn during retirement.
Roth Elective Deferrals – These contributions are made post-income tax and are not taxed on withdrawal during retirement.
Steps to setting up online access to your account
Go to: http://www.guidestone.org/
Select "Login">"MyGuidestone"
Select "Register now with MyGuideStone"
Follow the steps to register your account