UUA Office of Church Staff Finances
Guided by the values of our faith,
we equip congregations for excellence as employers
and their staff for financial competence and well-being. |
Compensation and Staffing News |
Editor's Note
Dear Readers,
Thank you for joining us in 2023! If you are a new subscriber or want to reread recent issues, the button below will take you to our Publications page.
Faithfully, |
Jan Gartner, Compensation and Staffing Practices Manager |
Do We Know Who Your Leaders Are?
There's a lot going on in the Office of Church Staff Finances, including the Retirement Plan Recordkeeper transition, enhancements to our Health Plan, and continued support for congregations in using our new Salary Program materials.
While we keep hundreds of you apprised through this newsletter each month, we also rely on targeted communications to people in specific congregational roles as listed in our database. The UUA congregational certification deadline is February 1. Please make sure we know who your leaders are by updating your leader listing as you certify. And remember, you can log in to myUUA to make changes to leaders anytime throughout the year. |
Our Insurance Plans Project Coordinator
From Mariyah Hawkins
Hi everyone! My name is Mariyah Hawkins, and I am thrilled to have joined the UUA team! I value and respect the UUA values and look forward to demonstrating them through my work here.
I am from Dallas, Texas but currently live in San Diego, California with my husband and 3-year-old daughter. We love going to the beaches, finding new parks, and exploring the city in our free time. My guilty pleasure is cleaning and organizing the spaces I am in most frequently while HGTV is playing in the background. Thank you all for the warm wishes and I look forward to my future with the UUA!
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News from Our Insurance Team
Health Plan Audit
Some congregations will be contacted soon regarding our annual audit. We kindly ask that any forms or information requests are completed in a timely manner to ensure a seamless process.
Health Plan Premium Increase
As we mentioned during Open Enrollment, 2023 Health Plan premiums have increased 7% from 2022, plus there is a small age-related increase. Premium changes are only for UUA Health Plan; rates for Dental, Life, and Long-Term Disability remain unchanged from last year. See the Health Insurance Premium Calculator at the button below.
Free COVID-19 Tests
Health Plan participants are eligible to receive eight free COVID-19 tests per plan participant every 30 days. Please encourage your staff to take advantage of this great benefit offered to keep them and those around them safe. |
W-2 Form Instructions
By January 31, W-2 forms must be given to employees and sent to the Social Security Administration. Our line-by-line instructions have been updated for the 2022 tax year and are available at the button below.
If you aren't familiar with imputing Long-Term Disability premiums (strongly recommended) and Group Term Life (as required by the IRS), be sure to read the next article. |
Imputed Income: The What, the Why, and the How
What is "imputed income" anyway? It means reporting an amount in an employee's taxable income that isn't paid in cash. As an example, any moving expenses paid by an employer on behalf of any employee are taxable. So if your congregation pays, say, $2,000 to a third-party mover, that amount needs to be imputed (reported as taxable) in the employee's pay. You didn't give the employee $2,000 in pay, but you provided a taxable benefit worth that amount.
With respect to UUA insurance, imputed income comes into play for both Long-Term Disability and Life Insurance.
Long-Term Disability: Saving Your Employee Money If a Claim Occurs
We expect congregations to pay the long-term disability premiums for their eligible staff, which means the benefit is provided tax-free to the employee. But when LTD premiums are paid pre-tax, any benefit later received will be taxed. If one of your staff goes on long-term disability, they will receive 60% of their pay. That's a very significant reduction in income. But if you have reported the premiums as taxable income, the employee's benefit dollars will be tax-free. This can save your employee hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars during a time of lower income.
Life Insurance: Imputing Required by the IRS
When employers pay for life insurance coverage for their employees, the IRS requires the value over $50,000 to be reported as taxable income. The UUA Life Insurance benefit is twice the employee's annual salary (and housing for ministers), up to a maximum coverage amount of $200,000. Therefore, anyone with a salary of over $25,000 per year will have imputed income.
How Does it Work?
Sean Griffin from our Compensation Team has created a video explaining how to report imputed income on your employees' W-2 forms. We've posted the video and slides at the bottom of our Insurance Plans and Taxes LeaderLab article. (See button below.) |
Retirement Plan Recordkeeper Transition: Getting Close
From Gloria Guldager, Retirement Plan Director
As we head into 2023, the Retirement Plan Team is working hard to prepare for the transition to our new recordkeeper, Empower, scheduled for February 27, 2023.
Empower Welcomes You
If you are a participant in the Plan, please look for this welcome brochure from Empower (PDF) in your mail. This brochure provides all of the details you will need to navigate through the transition, including important contact information and blackout dates (You will have limited access to your UUORP account at TIAA and no access to your account at Empower.). For our employers and plan administrators, we are working with Empower to begin providing resources and training materials on the new platform and remitting process. Those that have been identified as the Primary Contact for their congregation will begin to receive communications from Empower and the UU Retirement Plan Team very soon.
Deadline for Remitting to TIAA
Most importantly, do not send contribution data or payment to TIAA that will not be received by February 5, 2023. TIAA will not be able to process contributions received past that date and checks will be refunded. If you cannot send your January contributions to TIAA by this deadline, please hold those contributions to be submitted to Empower in March once the Plan goes live on the Empower platform.
We're Excited
The transition to Empower is going to improve the experience for our participants and employers. You can expect lower fees, a significantly enhanced participant experience, a stronger service team, and administrative efficiencies.
We look forward to shepherding you through this transition to Empower and making the UU Organizations Retirement Plan stronger and better positioned to help all attain financial security.
Please watch for more information regarding the transition in the coming days and weeks. You can also review the Recordkeeper Transition FAQ at the button below. Send all questions and comments to RetirementPlan@uua.org. |
The New Congregational Salary Program
Responding to Your Inquiries
We're getting lots of interesting questions about the new Salary Program. While we continue to emphasize that process is primary, understandably many of the inquiries are about the new Recommended Salary Ranges and associated materials. In our conversations with congregational leaders, we are reinforcing congregational ownership of salary decisions and practices. It's up to you to determine which size profile best fits your congregation and whether a particular position is at the manager or director level. We are here to help you think things through and to lift up equity and economic justice.
We've received a number of questions about specialized part-time positions such as AV support. As you know, part of the reasoning behind our switch from job titles to job levels is that benchmarking specific jobs was becoming increasingly impractical as congregational staffing has gotten so customized. Especially for very limited-hours roles, the most important wage consideration is likely the going rate for similar work in your location. As Compensation and Benefits Specialist Sean Griffin said to one leader recently, our lack of recommended salary ranges for particular jobs is, in part, a "humble recognition of the limits of our abilities."
Pat Yourselves on the Back
Many of us have a tendency to notice where we're falling short while not giving ourselves enough credit for what we're doing well. Use this transitional time first to take stock of values-based policies and practices that you already have in place. Then consider the next thing you want to do to demonstrate equity, transparency, and economic justice for your staff. |
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