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Tradition Eight: can anyone be paid for Twelfth Step work?

In short:

  • No. The Long Form of Tradition Eight says A.A.'s usual Twelfth Step work, one alcoholic carrying the message to another, is never to be paid for (pp. 564–565). In the 1946 wording: "our usual A.A. Twelfth Step work is never to be paid for" (P-17, Foreword, 1955, p. 9).
  • A.A. can pay people for other jobs: running an office, cooking, keeping a club, editing a magazine. The Long Form says such special services "may be well recompensed" (p. 564).
  • The Long Form defines professionalism as counseling alcoholics for fees. Bill W. wrote that members who go into that work as a career aren't excluded, but they must never present themselves as "A.A. therapists": "there is not, and can never be," such a thing (P-17, "Money", 1946, p. 32).

What the Long Form says (pp. 564–565)

  • A.A. "should remain forever nonprofessional" (p. 564).
  • It defines what that means: "We define professionalism as the occupation of counseling alcoholics for fees or hire" (p. 564).
  • A.A. may employ alcoholics to do work it would otherwise have to hire nonalcoholics for, and "Such special services may be well recompensed" (p. 564).
  • Its last sentence: our usual A.A. "12 Step" work is never to be paid for (pp. 564–565).

The 1946 original, reprinted in P-17, reads "Twelfth Step work" where the Big Book has "'12 Step' work" (P-17, pp. 8–9); the meaning is the same.

How Bill W. worked it out in "Money" (1946)

Why members worried. Clubs and offices were hiring paid workers, and members feared a paid class would grow inside A.A. Bill says the fear was understandable: in A.A. every member is a volunteer missionary in his own right, so there is no need for anyone to be paid for simple Twelfth Step work, "a purely spiritual undertaking" (P-17, "Money", 1946, p. 30).

The line he drew. "A janitor can sweep the floor, a cook can boil the beef," a steward can remove a troublesome drunk, a secretary can run an office, an editor can put out a paper, and none of that professionalizes A.A. (P-17, "Money", 1946, p. 30). If members didn't do these jobs, A.A. would have to hire nonalcoholics, and nobody expects a nonalcoholic to work full time for nothing (P-17, p. 30). If such a worker also does some Twelfth Step work along the way, that changes nothing. The principle: "we may pay well for special services — but never for straight Twelfth Step work" (P-17, "Money", 1946, p. 31).

What professionalizing would look like. Bill gives his own example: a sign on an office door reading "Bill W. — Alcoholics Anonymous Therapist," with an hourly fee (P-17, p. 31). That would be treating alcoholics for money while trading on A.A.'s name, which he calls legal but "hardly ethical" (P-17, p. 31).

Members who work in the field. Bill doesn't condemn therapists, and doesn't bar members from the work. Trained social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists who are A.A. members shouldn't "feel excluded" (P-17, p. 31). What they must not do is advertise themselves as A.A. therapists or use their A.A. connection publicly; like a tennis player turning pro, they drop their amateur standing (P-17, p. 31). He goes on: members offered jobs as nurses, doctors, social workers, educators or personnel officers can take them, as long as they avoid "A.A. therapy" and anything that would hurt A.A. as a whole (P-17, pp. 32–33).

His summary, point (f): A.A. must avoid professionalization at all costs; "simple Twelfth Step work is never to be paid for" (P-17, "Money", 1946, p. 32); members in alcohol therapy must never trade on their A.A. connection; and there can never be an "A.A. therapist." Point (g): members may be employed by A.A. full time if they have real duties beyond Twelfth Step work (P-17, p. 32).

The 1947 follow-up

In "Dangers in Linking A.A. to Other Projects," Bill applies the same idea to members who work in hospitals, research or alcohol education. They may, as long as they remember "first and last they are A.A.s" and that in that work "they are individuals only" (P-17, "Dangers in Linking A.A. to Other Projects", 1947, p. 25): no A.A. name in the press, and no leaning on A.A. in appeals for money or publicity (P-17, p. 25).

What the text settles, and what it doesn't

It settles the main question: nobody is paid for carrying the message to another alcoholic. It also settles that A.A. may pay for office and service work, and that a member's outside career in the alcohol field isn't forbidden, so long as A.A.'s name stays out of it.

The 1946–47 texts don't take up pay for sponsorship, chairing meetings or speaking at them (the 1946 membership essay mentions a sponsor only once, as someone early groups wanted to vouch for a newcomer). They speak of "Twelfth Step work," which in the Big Book means carrying the message to alcoholics (pp. 89–103). See What does Step 12 really say?

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages First published
The Twelve Traditions, Long Form, Tradition Eight (Big Book Appendix I) 564–565 AA Grapevine, 1946; in the Big Book from 1955
The 1946 wording, reprinted in P-17's foreword 8–9 1946 (foreword 1955)
Bill W., "Money" (P-17) 27–35 AA Grapevine, 1946
Bill W., "Dangers in Linking A.A. to Other Projects" (P-17) 23–26 AA Grapevine, 1947
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 7 89–103 1939

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). P-17 page numbers are the pamphlet's printed numbers (© 2019), which match aa.org's free PDF.

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.; the P-17 articles are © AA Grapevine, Inc., reprinted by A.A. World Services.

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.