UUA Office of Church Staff Finances
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and their staff for financial competence and well-being.
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Compensation & Staffing News
November 2024

Editor's Note

Dear Readers,

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New leaders or employees? Changes to staff salaries or addresses? Let us know!
Faithfully,
Jan Gartner, Compensation and Staffing Practices Manager
Read Back Issues of This Newsletter

Open Enrollment Information

A Time to Enroll or Make Changes
Open Enrollment runs through the month of November. This is when any eligible employee can enroll in our Health and/or Dental plans for the upcoming calendar year, and those currently enrolled can make changes to their coverage. For Health Plan participants, our Hospital Indemnity Plan is also available.

Plan participants, your current coverage will continue unless changes are submitted through our Benefits Change Form.

Health Plan Premiums and Plan Design
The base premiums for all three levels of the UUA Health Plan are increasing by 7% in 2025. In addition to this base increase for all, there is also an aging factor. The age-related adjustment varies from 0% (for those under 25 years) to 4.3% (for a 64-year-old). This means the maximum increase will be a little over 11%. 

As of this writing, the premiums posted in the Health Plan Premium Calculator are still showing the 2024 rates. The platform will be updated mid-month with 2025 rates.

We've also made some plan design changes, including slight adjustments to deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums, and copays/coinsurance. We're in the process of updating our Health Plan Comparison Grid, so you'll be able to see the 3 plan levels side by side. Our formulary (dictating how different classes of drugs are covered under the Plan) is also being modified; details will be available on the Highmark website. 

We plan to send a special issue of this newsletter once the Comparison Grid, Premium Calculator, and Formulary information resources are ready for you.

Dental Plan Premiums
Premiums are rising slightly for our Dental Plan, after a number of years at the same rate. 2025 rates:
  • Employee only: $65/month
  • Employee + 1: $130/month
  • Family: $150/month
Eligibility
Please share this article with all of your eligible staff. Eligibility is set by the UUA at 750 hours/year, or about 15 hours/week for year-round staff. For Health and Dental Plans, be sure to have clear, transparent policies that show how much of the premium you pay; this may be based on employee hours. For full-time staff, we recommend that congregations pay 80% of the employee premium plus 50% of the additional cost of dependents.
Learn about All UUA Insurance Plans

Health Plan Audit

Each year, about 40 congregations in the UUA Health Plan get audited. If your congregation is among them this cycle, you should have received an email on October 22 from Andrew Keklak, Rachel Barlow, or William Judy with our auditing firm, RSM. The email had the subject line: UUA Confirmation Request.

Audited congregations are asked to send information about one particular covered employee. It's easy to reply directly to Andrew's email or to use the secure file-sharing portal, but mail and fax options are also included. Please respond as soon as possible.

Congregational Salary Program: 2025-2026 Info

Congregational Salary Program materials are now posted for the '25-'26 program year. Start by reviewing our Salary Process Guidance to refresh your understanding of our process and values-based program. Remember that our compensation is about much more than numbers!

Recommended Salary Ranges reflect an increase of 3.0% from '24-'25 for the Support, Specialist, and Manager levels, and a 2.5% increase for Director and Executive levels. A pay increase of this amount keeps the staff member in the same place within their recommended range (or "the ruler"). Also keep in mind that the cost of living has gone up 2.6% since this time last year, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U). This means that a 2.6% pay increase is needed to maintain an employee's purchasing power. 

Each congregation is assigned a Geo Index, which adjusts for cost of wages in their location. About 80 congregations had a change in Geo Index this year; Sean and Jan have sent emails to alert key leaders in these congregations.
Find All Congregational Salary Program Resources

Retirement Plan Restatement

Reminder
If haven't yet submitted your UU Org Retirement Plan 2025 Employer Participation Agreement elections or Staff Report, please do so as soon as possible. The October 31st deadline is here and our team has hundreds of documents to process! Reminder emails with instructions were sent to the Primary Contact on October 15. Detailed instructions can be found at the button below.

Clarifications
  • Clergy Indication for Staff Report purposes: The column labeled "Clergy" is used to identify employees treated as ministers by the IRS, i.e., entitled to ministerial tax provisions. This includes any employee who has attained UU Preliminary Fellowship, regardless if they are serving as a minister or another role. Please use "Clergy" in the field for those that are deemed Clergy and "Non-Clergy" for everyone else. 
  • Separate housing from salary for Clergy: While "salary and housing" is considered a single item for the purpose of calculating contributions, the Staff Report asks you to list them separately because only the salary (not the housing) portion is counted for certain compliance testing. Anyone with the Clergy designation, regardless of role, is entitled to declare a housing allowance.  
Please reach out to our Retirement Team with questions: RetirementPlan@uua.org.
Instructions and Resources for Primary Contacts
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The UUA Office of Church Staff Finances provides general information to
help equip and empower congregational leaders in their decision-making.
We are not legal or tax professionals and we do not track state law. Congregations are solely responsible for their legal obligations. We encourage you to consult your own legal and tax advisors for specific guidance.

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