An important part of employee compensation is benefits. If you want to keep great employees on your team, you need to provide strong benefits for their family. And, this is especially true for your full-time pastors.

Here are the benefits that I recommend that every church provide at no cost to their pastors:

Insurance:

• Medical insurance for the pastor and his family.
• Dental insurance for the pastor and his family.
• Vision insurance for the pastor and his family.
• Term life insurance for the pastor and his family.
• Short-term disability insurance for the pastor.
• Long-term disability insurance for the pastor.

Retirement:

• The church should make a contribution to the pastor's retirement account every month without requiring a match. I recommend that the church contribute at least 10% to help their pastors prepare for retirement.

Social Security Allowance:

• If the pastor stayed in Social Security, the church should give them a Social Security Allowance (equal to 7.65% of their salary) as additional income to help them avoid double taxation.
• If the pastor opted out of Social Security, the church should give them a Social Security Allowance (equal to 7.65% of their salary) as a contribution to their retirement account to help them prepare for retirement. To be clear, this is in addition to their retirement benefit.

Other:

• Monthly cell phone reimbursement.
• Discretionary ministry budget for ministry expenses (ministry meals, books, mileage reimbursement, etc.).
• Conference/Sabbatical budget to help your pastor grow as a leader and stay refreshed.
• Paid time off.
• Christmas bonus.
• Pay for their kids to participate in church events and church trips.

By providing these benefits to your pastors, you can have confidence that you are properly taking care of the leaders of your church.