Kevin Kinghorn has some thoughts about this over at Seedbed:
The packages of Traidcraft coffee I’ve bought in the past always carry the written promise that coffee producers in developing countries are paid “a fair price for their work.” I’m all for healthy, sustainable business practices. But the Traidcraft label does raise the obvious follow-up question: What exactly is a “fair” price to pay a worker?
We would all agree to obvious points about the treatment of workers: that employers should fulfill contractual promises to their workers, that they should provide safe working conditions, and so forth. But the idea of a “fair” wage seems much more nebulous. What kind of wages would satisfy requirements of fairness, or perhaps justice, or perhaps Christian duty?
As best I can tell, Christian theology points to two considerations in trying to settle such questions. [Read more]
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