Fair Wages? What does that mean: fair wages? Does it mean we are given a “living wage”, are paid what we are worth, or does it mean we are paid what we agree to with our employer? Yesterday we started a discussion on labor unions and the discussion was really educational…at least for me. One of the pro-union arguments is that laborers should be given a fair wage or a living wage. This is where the minimum wage concept came from along with striking (stopping work) to pressure employers to giving them more money. While I think we all can agree that folks should be able to make a decent living, is this approach Biblical? Consider this passage from Matthew 20. Laborers in the Vineyard (NASB) 20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; 4 and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he *said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ 7 They *said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He *said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard *said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’ 9 When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. 10 When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’ 13 But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ 16 So the last shall be first, and the first last.” Does this passage support or contradict the strategies of unions? Think about this, the worth of our labor is subject to our employer’s willingness to pay. That doesn’t mean there are not people who will take advantage of us, but in the long-game they will pay a much large price with their soul than will those who play by the rules. Keep this in mind too. As minimum wage goes up, so do operational costs. As operational costs go up, what happens to prices? As prices go up, who suffers the most, those at the bottom of the pay chart or those at the top? Who then ultimately benefits from higher minimum wages and who ultimately suffers? The wisdom in Matthew 20 is profound and shows a good and clear path to a fair wage philosophy.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 08:54:33 +0000
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