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Summary
- Jehovah’s Witnesses have no paid clergy; congregation elders serve without salary and most of them work secular jobs.
- Witnesses are not paid for preaching, including from door to door, and elders charge nothing for baptisms, weddings or funerals.
- Full-time workers in their religious order, such as missionaries, circuit overseers, special pioneers and branch staff, receive food, lodging, health care and a small allowance.
- The Governing Body and other headquarters workers are unsalaried, and the British charity reports that no trustee receives remuneration.
- The work is financed by voluntary donations, with no tithes, dues, collections or fundraising events, and each congregation reports its finances monthly.
- Catholic canon law says clerics deserve remuneration suited to their condition, and most Protestant churchgoers still regard tithing as binding.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations from the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (2013 revision), Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society: Matthew 10:8; 23:8; 1 Corinthians 9:14; 16:2; 2 Corinthians 2:17; 9:7; 11:9; Hebrews 7:5; 1 Timothy 5:17, 18. https://www.jw.org/en/library/bible/nwt/books/
- “Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Get Paid for Their Religious Activities?” jw.org. https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/do-jehovahs-witnesses-get-paid/
- “How Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Use Donations and Donated Funds?” jw.org. https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/how-do-jw-use-donations/
- “How Is the Work of Jehovah’s Witnesses Financed?” jw.org. https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/donations-worldwide-work-finances-money/
- “Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Practice Tithing?” jw.org. https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/do-jehovahs-witnesses-tithe/
- “How Are Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Congregations Organized?” jw.org. https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/congregations-organized/
- “Remember Those in the Full-Time Service,” The Watchtower (Simplified Edition), September 15, 2014. https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/ws20140915/remember-those-in-full-time-service/
- “How Is Our Worldwide Work Financed?” Who Are Doing Jehovah’s Will Today? Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1102012165
- Charity Commission for England and Wales, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain (charity 1077961), accounts for the year ending August 31, 2025. https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/3966490/full-print
- Code of Canon Law, canon 281, Holy See. https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib2-cann208-329_en.html
- “Churchgoers Are Still Tithing, More Comfortable Doing So Outside of Church,” Lifeway Research, April 25, 2023. https://research.lifeway.com/2023/04/25/churchgoers-are-still-tithing-more-comfortable-doing-so-outside-of-church/
- “Ordination,” Wikipedia (on holy orders in Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordination
