if you work for a church, can they require you to give 10% of your salary back to them? (2024)

A reader writes:

A friend of mine has been really down on his luck job-wise, but he’s finally managed to pass the final round of interviews for an IT position at a church. The way he tells it, it seems as though they are just waiting for his background check to go through and they’ll go forward with hiring him. He was given a copy of the employee handbook today, and as he was reading it, he said it stated that church staff are required to tithe! (For those who may be unfamiliar, a tithe is nowadays interpreted as 10% of your income given to the church). So, if he takes this job he will have to give 10% of his paycheck back to the church.

Normally I would just tell him to find a different job elsewhere, but in this case my friend has been looking for a job for months and has a kid to support, and this is his first real lead (his work history is pretty unfortunate and he has been a stay-at-home parent for most of the last five years). My thing is, even if this policy is illegal (which google tells me is not only legal, but fairly common practice), he likely won’t make any progress with trying to change any policy as a brand-new employee.

So I figure his options are to (a) take the job and just don’t tithe, and hope no one says anything, (b) tithe, suck it up, and try to make himself feel better about it by focusing on the discount he’s getting on their (not free) childcare program, or (c) start all the way back over with his job search, and risk homelessness.

None of those options are great, so what would you advise? Also, if my friend makes less than the minimum salary requirement for exempt employees after the tithe, is it still legal to require it? And the last thing — HOW is this legal???

See Also

Am I Under a Curse if I Don’t Tithe?

It is indeed legal for churches to require their employees to tithe. I was skeptical at first too, but yep.

The answer to “how is that possible?” is that federal law exempts religious organizations like churches from laws against religious discrimination. That means that churches can, for example, require that employees be “church members in good standing” and good standing can require tithing.

So yes, your friend would be earning 10% less than the salary the church offers him, since 10% will be going right back to them. He should find out whether it’s taken as a pre-tax deduction from his paycheck (preferable) or whether he’ll be taxed on the money before he’s required to donate it back. (In most states they cannot withhold the money from his paycheck without his written permission … but they can also fire him for not tithing so, you know, tomato/tamahto.)

Normally if a required deduction takes your paycheck under minimum wage, it’s illegal … or if it takes an exempt employee under the exempt salary threshold, they’d lose the exemption and thus would be entitled to overtime (here’s an explanation of what that all means). However, that’s governed by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and churches are often exempt from the FLSA! However, individual church employees can still be covered, depending on their duties, so there’s no blanket answer here. You’d need a lawyer to look at the specifics of his situation. (There are also a bunch of state-specific exceptions, so a lawyer is really the way to go if he wants definite answers.)

As for the options you laid out … if he’s really at risk of homelessness or not being able to buy food/medical care/other necessities, he should take the job. Hell, even if he’s not at risk of those things, he should take the job if it’s his only option for income. He doesn’t need to stay long-term, but it’ll get a paycheck coming in for now. He could try not tithing and see what happens — but my guess is he’ll be called on it eventually, even if not immediately, so he should be putting that 10% aside in case he suddenly needs to cough it up to stay in the job. (Or, if he has other options by the time that happens, maybe he doesn’t need to cough it up — but you don’t want him to find himself in a situation where he needs to and can’t.)

If he’s really opposed to tithing (which would be understandable), in theory he could take the job, not tithe, collect the paychecks for as long as he can, and then let them fire him for not complying at some point if they want to. But that’s not a great solution if he’s trying to repair a spotty job history. It also raises the ethical issue of whether, when an employer is up-front about the requirements of the job and you oppose those requirements, is it okay to take the job knowing you don’t intend to comply? On one hand, the law says the church has the right to only hire people who actively support their congregation, including monetarily. On the other hand, there’s some inherent coercion in this situation, especially when we’re talking about someone whose alternative might be homelessness. So … I don’t know. I don’t like the requirement to tithe, but they’re being up-front about it … and I’m also not a religious person trying to build a team of other religious people to run a church with (and I can see how my perspective might change if I were). I suppose ultimately I could argue it either way.