wfn.org | Minimum Wage Affects Clergy

[ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

NEWSBRIEF

September 30, 1996

MINIMUM WAGE AFFECTS CLERGY

Congress passed the Minimum Wage Bill that included provisions
directly affecting programs that provide retirement and welfare
benefits for more than 260,000 clergy and 114,000 lay workers
employed by churches, synagogues and church ministry
organizations throughout the United States.  The Church Alliance,
a coalition of church pension board executives who act on behalf
of church pension and welfare benefit programs, helped develop
those provisions for the Church Retirement Benefits
Simplification Act.  John G. Kapanke, president of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Board of Pensions,
chairs the alliance.  "We have worked nearly 10 years on these
provisions to safeguard the well being of our plan members and
permit the Board of Pensions to provide the same benefits to
those pastors called into specialized ministries," said Kapanke.
"This bill is a very significant achievement, and I am pleased
with the bipartisan support  our efforts received in Washington,
D.C."  Under the act, chaplains and other clergy who are
considered self-employed can participate in their denominational
pension plans without inadvertently violating the Internal
Revenue Code.  It resolves a debate between pension boards and
the Internal Revenue Service over  the taxation of housing
allowances some clergy receive.  The bill creates a special
foreign missionary exemption to provide adequate pension
contributions for clergy who usually receive low compensation.

For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service,
(312) 380-2958 or AHAFFTEN@ELCA.ORG; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir.,
(312) 380-2955 or FRANKI@ELCA.ORG