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Understanding the International Salary Structure

International workers face unique financial realities—varying costs of living, diverse job roles, and long-term financial planning needs like retirement and college savings.


Salary Models
Needs-basedBased on your family’s financial needs in your location.
Market-basedBased on the job itself, regardless of personal needs.
Reliant's Hybrid Model

We blend both approaches, creating a recommended household budget that considers:

  • Your family situation
  • Your location’s cost of living
  • Your role and tenure

This helps determine a maximum salary that’s fair and sustainable. This is not a required salary, but it’s a helpful starting point to reduce guesswork and ensure consistency across international roles.

Reminder: This section only covers your salary. Your support goal also includes ministry expenses, benefits, and administrative fees.


Determining Your Monthly Salary

To determine a fair and comparable salary for international workers, we begin with the appropriate U.S. Reliant salary level based on your job role, tenure, and performance. This serves as our baseline. We then adjust that salary—broken into three segments—according to the cost of living in your ministry location.

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Segment #1: U.S. Base Salary

Your base salary is based on Reliant’s U.S. staff levels and remains the same regardless of where you serve internationally. It reflects shared financial realities for American workers—such as saving for retirement, college, and other long-term needs—that apply no matter your location. This will automatically increase by 5% for every year of tenure.


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Segment #2: Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA)

We take one-third of your base salary and adjust it using a COLA percentage. This adjustment reflects the cost of living in your ministry location—higher for expensive cities, lower for more affordable ones. The COLA percentage is based on an average from three cost-of-living websites, and we round the final number up to ensure adequate coverage.


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Segment #3: Housing and Utilities

This portion of your salary is based on the real cost of housing and utilities in your ministry location. It helps account for significant differences in housing expenses across regions and reflects the unique needs of each family unit. This approach aligns with typical American budgeting, where housing costs generally make up 30–35% of monthly expenses.

Examples:
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titleA Single Worker Living Overseas

Let’s look at an example of a new Reliant International Worker, who is single, and has an overseas job that is equivalent to a Reliant U.S. worker who would make $30,000/year or $2,500/monthly in the U.S. The table shows the monthly salary breakdown. Below the table you’ll see an explanation of each column and line:



US Salary
(100% COLA)

Vietnam Salary
(50% COLA)

Japan
(150% COLA)

Segment #1: US Base

$833

$833

$833

Segment #2: COLA

$833

$417

$1,250

Segment #3: Housing

$833

$1,000

$1,250

Total Gross Salary

$2,500

$2,250

$3,333


Each location results in a different total salary—even for workers with the same role, tenure, and family situation—because of differences in cost of living and housing expenses.


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titleA Married Couple living Overseas

For a married couples, we determine a household salary, based on individual staff levels, COLA, and joint housing costs. In Table 2, Spouse 1 would make $36,000 in the US based on staff level and Spouse 2 would make $54,000 in the US based on staff level. This is a combined annual salary of $90,000, or $7,500 per month.


Household Salary
Total

US Salary
(100% COLA) 

Vietnam Salary
(50% COLA)

Japan Salary
(150% COLA)

Segment #1: US Base

$2,500

$2,500

$2,500

Segment #2: COLA

$2,500

$1,250

$3,750

Segment #3: Housing

$2,500

$2,000

$3,000

Total Gross Salaries

$7,500

$5,750

$9,250


We typically divide the household salary based on each spouse’s staff level. If both are at the same level, it’s a 50/50 split. If one spouse’s role accounts for more of the salary—say 40/60—the split reflects that. For example, in Japan, Spouse 1 might receive $3,700 and Spouse 2 $5,550.

We’re also happy to adjust the percentage split if needed—just let us know. Some couples choose a different breakdown for tax reasons or other personal preferences.


Adding Auxiliary Monthly Expenses

For international employees, we recognize that there is a vast difference in salaries across the international cities where our workers live and minister. We also recognize that workers have varying job roles and responsibilities that are worthy of unique compensation. The following salary structure balances these realities in a way that we believe will ensure all our workers have what they need to thrive in their specific locations and uphold equitable compensation metrics.

As an International Goer, your base salary will be determined by equal parts of three factors.

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You can review the ins and outs of each metric on the following Solomon pages.

Solomon page on staff levels

Solomon page on cost of living

Solomon page on actual housing costs?

On top of your base salary, there are some additional categories to think through to determine what your household will need to thrive on the field.

Children's Education Expenses

Chronic Medical Needs

Student Loan Payments

National Health Insurance Premium

Local Taxes due in Country of Ministry

Ministry Expense Bonus

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Determining Your Base Salary

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Reliant and your supervisor will determine your Staff Level. If married, each spouse will be at minimum a staff level 1

Children's Education/Childcare - You may take a stipend equal to the actual cost of enrolling your children in school, homeschooling your children overseas, or obtaining childcare in order for both spouses to fulfill ministry responsibilities. Because this is not eligible as a reimbursement, we must include it in your salary. 


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Student Loan Payments - Because many of our workers have obtained professional degrees, yet have sacrificed a more profitable career to serve overseas, they may receive an additional amount per month to cover outstanding student loan payments.


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Local Health Insurance Premium - For workers who serve in a country that offers a national health insurance plan, any associated premiums may be included as an additional salary item. For those on Reliant

will determine the cost-of-living adjustment that makes sense for your specific ministry location. Our base is Orlando, FL, so percentages are measured in comparison to average cost of living in Orlando. UI Step

's health insurance, this premium will be added to your monthly support goal later in the worksheet and will come directly from one’s MTD account, not your salary.


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Taxes in Country of Service - While most international workers will be exempt from federal income tax, many will owe taxes in the country where they are living an working. You should work with your supervisor to estimate taxes you might owe. If they will be quarterly or annual payments, estimate the cost per month for budgeting purposes.


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Ministry Expense Bonus - Full-time workers (30+ hours) may take up to $600/month to cover ministry expenses including local travel, meals and hospitality, internet service, and other miscellaneous items. Part-time workers may take up to $300/month.


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Monthly Cell Phone Bonus - Full-time workers (30+ hours) may take up to $100/month to cover their cell phone bill. This is a separate line item on your paystub and is considered non-taxable income.


Examples
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titleA Single Worker living in Vietnam

Based on the above example in Table 1, where the starting monthly salary is $2250

Monthly SalaryChildren EdTaxesLocal HealthStudent Loan Payments

Ministry Expense Bonus

Gross Monthly Income
$2250NA$300NA

$250

$200$3,000

Click the images below to see how it works out on the spreadsheet.

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titleMarried Couple living in Japan

Based on the above example in Table 2, where the starting household salary is $9,250/month.

Auxiliary Expenses are divided between each spouse based on portion of total salary.

Total Monthly Salary

Children EdStudent LoansLocal HealthTaxesMinistry Expense Bonus

Spouse 1 Gross Monthly Income

Spouse 2 Gross Monthly Income

$9,250$500NA$500$500$600$4,540$6810

Click the images below to see how it works out on the spreadsheet.

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Accepting Your Salary

This worksheet calculates the salary that we believe will allow you to thrive on the field, be adequately compensated for your job role, and make provisions for the future. Because all international workers are support-based, we offer you the freedom of accepting a lower salary. The support goal worksheet will default to accepting the total salary. If you want to take a lower salary, check the box next to "I will choose a lower salary" and enter your desired amount.

Paycheck Calculator

Please use the tab "Paycheck Calculator" to determine what your Net Pay will be after Federal Tax deductions and 403b Contributions. We have factored these into our Base Salaries and you are responsible for understanding your Tax Withholding. You must update your W-4 to notify Reliant of any changes

After talking with your supervisor, you will enter the cost of rent and utilities in your city. This should be as close as possible to actual expenses, although we realize it will be an estimate in the initial MTD phase

.