Anyways, a poster over at RfM called "Flew the Coop" has recently been posting some intriguing information on this subject. Apparently, the men at the top of the hierarchy receive a whopping $600,000 per year! This on top of whatever earnings they pull in from book sales, etc. Anyways, here is one of "Flew the Coop'"s posts:
Flew the Coop wrote:leaving the morg wrote:I was told from a friend who had a friend who worked in the finance department up until a couple of years ago that the first pres. and 12 were at that time paid 600K a year and that the 70 were paid about 120K. Can you confirm this?
Your figures are approximately right for the mid- nineties and reflect changes that Hinckley made when he first became president.I have to believe it is significantly more now. In addition, in the mid-ninety the members of the First Presidency each had unlimited, unaudited charge cards. Hinckley lived in a million dollar condo with servants all provided by Church funds. Earlier in his life under conservative presidents, I understand that he lived in a more modest home on the East side somewhere. GA's have significant other benefits like the vacation retreat owned by the Church down by ST. George, free tuition in Church colleges for their families, world-wide travel pretty much any time they want.
The seventies are paid differently according to their time and connections with the First Presidency. There are token seventies who are not from elite families(non-americans mostly) who will never progress to an apostle. The second quorum is a testing ground where their loyalty and ability to keep secrets and PR acumen are tested.
Also, there are other significant benefits that have to do with the businesses that the Church owns. This is not only the obvious radio,TV,newspapers, cattle ranches, farms, grain elevators, etc. that everyone should know about, but other business that the Church owns partnership in.
Church employment is not bad like some would report. When
To give you an idea of Church middle management. I left in the mid-nineties, I was a 28 level under their then current personnel system. I earned about 100,000 per year with benefits including pension. I could travel pretty much anywhere world-wide with little justification. They did watch your temple recommend closely and were very picky about vacation and sick days. You felt like a child sometimes. It was able to land work on the outside that paid more but I had to work a lot harder to get it.
The thing about the "unaudited charge card" would seem to confirm Dr. Shades' remarks about the credit card on the Celestial Forum. In any case, while a bit of skepticism is surely healthy, if this is true, it ought to lay to rest the frankly absurd claims from TBMs that the GAs receive "modest" compensation.