Living on a Genuine Need Basis

Staff and Way Corps living at The Way root locations at Camp Gunnison and the New Knoxville headquarters are expected to live on what the trustees have described as a "genuine need basis."

An individual's "genuine need" is established by the Personnel Director of the Way International at the time of hiring and is reviewed annually.

Budget categories are set up for the individual such as car maintenance, clothing, car insurance, telephone bill, entertainment, personal grooming etc. and a fixed amount of money is allocated for each category.

The Theory

In theory, the amount of money to be allocated for each category is to be discussed with each individual and their individual need is to be met within that category.

This is supposed to allow for someone who has special needs in a category to get their need met - thus the "genuine need basis" term came about.

The Practice

In practice however, the Personnel Director tells the individual what is the normal or typical amount allocated for each category and then the individual either accepts that amount or asks to be an "exception" to the norm.

The Way Corps are taught from their first weeks in the in-residence training never to be exceptions. Therefore most staff and Corps accept the amounts suggested to them by the Personnel Director.

This "genuine need basis" method of calculating an individual's pay leaves many staff and Corps living at what most would consider poverty level.

The Way claims that its staff don't need as much as it also provides all meals and housing.

Working Hours at The Way

The Way International Staff Handbook specifies a minimum work week for single people and all married men of fifty hours.

Way followers are taught from very early in their association with The Way to never be "minimum minded" in their giving of time and talents and so the actual hours worked by the Way Corps and staff of The Way International range between fifty-three hours per week up to more than seventy hours per week for many, depending on the department the person is assigned to. A large number of staff will fall into the sixty hours per week bracket.

Pay scales at The Way

The Way International employs a unique method of paying its employees. It pays its staff a "net" amount. That is, The Way figures out how much your "genuine need" is and then back calculates that amount to determine how much tax needs to be paid.

The Way International does not pay social security for its employees which will result in great financial hardship for its workers at retirement time.  Some Way staff have been on the payroll for more than twenty-five years.

The Way International has no retirement benefits for its workers and Martindale has said on several occasion that The Way is not responsible to help with retirement benefits.

Martindale on one occasion (1998) in a Corps meeting said that he had dropped a couple from the Way Corps because they had dared to bring up the subject. He then went on to threaten that the next person to mention retirement benefits to him would be fired and dropped from the Way Corps.

Way Pay is not related to the amount of hours a person works or the amount of work produced.

Net salary for a single person ranges between $60 dollars and $100 per week. $75 per week is the range that most people would fall into. There are two pay periods in each month - the 10th and the 25th.

Way staff work fifty one weeks per year and MUST work at least fifty hours per week.

	A Way worker who works only fifty hours per week and is paid $60 per week will make $3060 per year. Fifty hours per week for fifty one weeks equals an annual total of 2550 hours. Being paid $3060 for that work equates to a take home pay of $1.20 per hour.
	A Way worker who works only fifty hours per week and is paid $75 per week will make $3825 per year. Fifty hours per week for fifty one weeks equals an annual total of 2550 hours. Being paid $3825 for that work equates to a take home pay of $1.50 per hour.
	A Way worker who works only fifty hours per week and is paid $100 per week will make $5100 per year. Fifty hours per week for fifty one weeks equals an annual total of 2550 hours. Being paid $5100 for that work equates to a take home pay of $2.00 per hour.

If a staff person works 65 hours and receives a net weekly pay of $75 (which is very common at The Way) then the take home pay check would equate to $1.15 cents per hour.

A couple will typically be paid a little less than the above amount as they should only have one car and therefore less gas money and maintenance money is needed.

The Way claims that these low numbers taken on their own, misrepresent the real picture. A Way employee after all has all of his meals and housing and medical expenses provided for him.

As for Way meals, we will write an article on that soon. We have already written an article on Way housing. We will discuss medical expenses later in the article.

Having seen a W2 from a Way staff couple who had worked a full year at The Way, the amount listed under fringe benefits for food and housing was $900 per person. Adding that amount to the Way salary makes almost no impact.

Housing and food that is valued at $900 per year per person is either an incredible stewarding of resources or food and housing that the average person would rather pass up on. Many Way staff feel that the latter is the case.

Medical Expenses

A provision of the emergency cutbacks document was that Way staff had to take a 10% paycut and to pay 20% of any medical expenses that they incurred (previously The Way paid 100%).

No budget category of income was subsequently offered the staff to help them prepare for medical expenditures. They were told to take any monies needed for medical expenses from other budget categories.

This meant that the staff had been asked to live at 10% below what had already been determined to be a minimal salary.

Some Way staff are now privately describing their salaries as being "below need" salaries.

Medical expenses for some have already amounted to more than The Way gives them for their savings categories for the entire year.

Several people have spent more than $1000 on the staff portion of medical expenses in the first half of this year alone, and yet they make about $3000 - $4000 per year.

These staff are left to wonder where they can take their families on vacation in the summer seeing that they have spent all of their vacation money category on needed medical care.

A fact not known to the Way Corps or Way staff is that The Way Trustees who claim that they are setting the example with the belt-tightening measures are exempt from the 20% of medical expenses clause. Way Trustees and Trustee household members continue to be reimbursed at 100% on ALL medical expenses.

The 100% reimbursement for Trustees is fully utilized by Martindale and his family,  whose monthly medical expense bills often are in the neighborhood of $1000 - $1500. This number is surprising as Martindale and his family give every appearance of being healthy.

We do not know whether Martindale is required to submit legitimate medical expense receipts in the same way that other Way staffers do.