There was a time and a place for it. When Pastors lacked enough compensation to live on because the church was too poor to pay enough. But, today? Still possible, of course, as I know some who have tiny churches. However, when you think about the average church, they should do their best to pay the pastor a living salary, or allow time for him to hold a part-time job. Think of Paul. Anyway, there is much abuse these days and probably a good reason to do away with it to prevent fraud. Obviously, these people who perpetrate the fraud have no conscience to be pricked with their duplicity. Sorry state that is!
Still COMMON, perhaps now more than ever! Many congregations are struggling financially, and quite often they balance their budget on the back of the pastor: slashing his salary, downgrading his health insurance, etc. This has happened to me, and to lots and lots of my fellow pastors.
My wife is a 1/4-time Pastor of a small Methodist Church. They gave her the 1/4-time position so they wouldn’t have to ordain her and thus pay for her healthcare. Some months she doesn’t even get her paycheck. Fortunately, she has a second job which does offer a healthcare plan (at least for now).
Glad that you've given me an opportunity to educate you in an area where you obviously lack knowledge. Generally speaking, a church is going to need at least 100 members to be self-sustaining with a full time pastor. Excluding Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, 59% of Christian congregations in the US are smaller than that (100 members probably is going to be 30-50 families). Another 35% are 100-500 members. Those at the upper end of that group are going to be able to pay a 'living salary'. Only one-half of one percent of the congregations have 2000 or more members.
So approximately 2/3 of the churches aren't going to be able to pay a pastor a 'living salary'. He's going to either have to have a part time job, be retired, or be independently wealthy.