With the Creation Museum hemorrhaging money each year, you would imagine belts around the Ham house would be tight. But this does not seem to be the case according to findings by WCPO-TV in Cincinnati.

According to a report by the station Answers in Genesis, the parent company of the museum employs several of Ham’s family members and pays them a great deal in combined salary. (bolding mine)

Those family members were Renee Hodge, Ham’s daughter, who earned $34,000 that fiscal year; Danielle Johnson, another daughter, who earned $19,767; Kristel Ham, a third daughter, who earned $13,312; Jeremy Ham, a son, who earned $40,166; David Hodge, Ham’s son-in-law, who earned $59,973; Susan Ham, a daughter-in-law, who earned $21,002; and Stephen Ham, Ken Ham’s brother, who earned $74,856. Ham himself, who is the organization’s CEO, had $193,361 in total compensation that year.

Figures they say:

Altogether, Ham and his family members received a total of $456,437 in compensation from Answers in Genesis Inc. in fiscal 2012-13. That amounts to 4.4 percent of the $10.4 million in total compensation-related expenses that the organization reported that year. That figure includes payroll, insurance, pension accruals and payroll taxes.

The individual salaries of employees are not outrageous for a non-profit, but Ham’s personal salary certainly is when combined with the fact the organization is losing money. The same report finds that:

According to the Form 990, Answers in Genesis had $19 million in total revenue during fiscal 2012-13, versus $19.5 million in total expenses.

AiG lost half a million dollars, yet Ham didn’t seem to tighten his or his families belts at all!

More shocking is that Ham is begging for donations to finish his Ark Encounter project, demanding taxpayer money all while making just under $200,00o a year, and that’s in 2013, I am sure he has given himself a nice raise by now.

If Ham really believed the work he was doing was so important, wouldn’t it reason he would live on as little money as possible and try to spend much more money on spreading his message?

(h/t: The Sensuous Curmudgeon)

[Image: Ken Ham debates Bill Nye / Video screen capture]