Scientology pays its staffers criminally low wages, an abuse that many Independents are happy to blame on church leader David Miscavige. But pitiful staff pay wasn’t DM’s idea – it was L. Ron Hubbard’s. LRH talks about it – hell, he almost brags about it – in a 1970 bulletin entitled “What Your Fees* Buy”:
“A Sea Org member draws only about 4 pounds a week [about $53 in 2010 dollars] and his room and board… staff members over the world work for so little that Execs occasionally get letters from their landladies demanding orgs increase their pay level so staff members can pay their rent. Occasionally some org or franchise goes on a big kick of high pay. We very soon pull the rug out from under that.”
— LRH
Scientology continues to pay Sea Org members a pittance – estimates range from $25 to $75 per week. ($208 per week is the poverty line.) Once again, it appears that David Miscavige is running the Church of Scientology exactly the way LRH intended…abuses and all.
Read the original bulletin in PDF format here.
ML,
Caliwog
* In a 1991 update, the word “fees” was changed to “donations” throughout the document. This web page outlines all of the alterations.
Caliwog's Blog 
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