What is the monthly stipend that the bethelites receive every month? (page 2)

JWdaughter

Unlike SOME at Bethel, most Bethelites do not have access to the autos in the Bethel garage.

When I was in, they were getting $14 a month. I figured that would keep me in feminine hygiene products and really bad shampoo.

dropoffyourkeylee

My brother was there for a while and I think he received som cash about $100 and also some kind of clothing allowance.

To play devil's advocate, when they enter Bethel, don't they have to sign a vow of poverty? So aren't they expected to "live poorly"? Granted, I'm sure the GB are under the same vow and live quite a different life from a regular bethelite. Not fair at all, of course. But then again, we are talking about a cult aren't we?

fulano

StephaneLaliberte8 hours ago

What is the monthly stipend that the bethelites receive every month? Does any one has an actual number?

In which country? We received as missionaries ( same as bethelites), in dominican republic , like 40 dollars a month in the 92-95. After that it raised. At NY a 100 each, 1999. Nowadays I don't know.

Why the question Anyway?

Lieu

Why would they have to sign a vow of poverty? Are they monks?

Also, too, if they don't come from a rich family, they don't have money anyway. We are talking mostly 20 somethings with little more than a HS education working at a book factory, yes.

StephaneLaliberte

Fulano: Why the question Anyway?

It seems that since I have left the JWs two years ago, I keep hearing/learning about really bad things about them and it keeps surprising me. How could I have been so blind?

Recently, I was reading the Branch Organisation rule book which was leaked not too long ago… I than noticed that the working conditions in Bethel are far below standard if we compare them to what is set by law; the government of Quebec in Canada for instance. In Quebec, you have 9 public holidays + 12 vacation days by the end of the first year. That is a total of 21 days.

To reach the same number of vacation days, a bethelite needs to work 14 years! They work longer hours, they may get dismissed if they fall sick more than 10 days, they have no retirement plan, and… they don’t even get 200$ per month!

Call it dedication, I call it abuse. At conventions, they tell everyone that there is no better employer than Jehovah and yet, they don’t explain the working conditions until they are in. Many sign up, without questions, trusting that everything will be fine. Then, once they're in, they read these things and suddenly realize that they got themselves in a mess.

Yet, everyone at home is so proud and they gave their word that they’d be there for at least a year. So they stay. In the meantime, they get the message that if they leave bethel, well, it will be a failure, not “good enough” and blah blah blah. So they stay a few more years. All the while, any thought of self entitlement is crushed at every turn: They don’t matter, the group does. As the years pass, they lose their connections at home. People move, they get married, they die, and the world becomes a scarier place. Summers and winters still come and go, and they are unable to put a penny aside: it appears all the more impossible to make a new start somewhere else. Than, 36 years have passed and all that they have in return is 30 vacations days per year, the absolute maximum. So they get curious, they go online, and notice that most companies give that time away after only 5 to 7 years of service.

All the meanwhile, talks are given, telling people that the world is evil, loveless, while they treat their own with less privileges than the bare minimum provided by the laws of this system.

Even worst, recently, they're dismissing a good deal of these bethelites telling them to be pioneers out in the field. Its already bad enough that they are sending them out with nothing, they had to send them out with a guilt trip!

It really saddens me. As time passes, I realize that they are far worse than I thought; with things like these, I find them beyond redemption.

As Oubliette keeps posting at the end of his messages: It’s a cult.

Beth Sarim

From my understanding the monthly ''stipend'' at Bethel was something in the order of enough to by a pair of pants or pair of shoes. Yes,probably 40-$80 dollar a month range.

Richard_I

In Canada, it was something like $150/month. If you had a car, you could apply for another stipend that would help pay for gas, I think it was $450/yr or something like that (most bethelites were assigned to congregations 20-30 mins away like Milton or Mississauga). This was over 5 years ago.

Barrold Bonds

I was there roughly ten years ago. The stipend was about $120. Once you factor in transportation costs, you were left with 50 bucks or so. People who used cars to drive for meetings or service, could get a reimbursement on the mileage. Not sure how much that was.

TheListener

For mileage reimbursement you had to keep a log book.

What is the monthly stipend that the bethelites receive every month?