{"id":4566,"date":"2016-05-20T08:53:55","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T14:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=4566"},"modified":"2016-05-20T08:53:55","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T14:53:55","slug":"is-it-just-to-pay-low-wages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/05\/is-it-just-to-pay-low-wages.html","title":{"rendered":"Is it just to pay low wages . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ACommunityClosetThriftStoreItems.jpg;<\/p>\n

if the alternative is no wages?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the natural follow up to my comment on the Archdiocese of Chicago parental leave policy.<\/p>\n

One could substitute \u201cprovide poor or no employee benefits\u201d for \u201cpay low wages,\u201d of course \u2014 which would encompass decisions about health insurance provision, or time off, or retirement benefits.<\/p>\n

And the lens of nonprofit employers is a helpful one for framing the issue, I think, because it bypasses accusations of employer \u201cgreed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Case 1: \u00a0the youth minister. \u00a0In a parish where funds are too tight to pay a staff member, you\u2019d likely have a volunteer instead, or perhaps a team of volunteers. \u00a0And back before the idea of having a specific ministry for youth, this was likely all there was, until, at various parishes, when funds were flowing more than now, the decision was made that this should be a paid position. \u00a0Perhaps the motivation might have been that a paid individual would be more professional about the work, than the existing team of volunteers, or perhaps there may have been one individual (e.g., a nominally \u201cstay-at-home\u201d mom) doing so much work on a \u201cvolunteer\u201d basis that it was agreed that the right thing to do, given present accomodating financial circumstances, was to give the volunteer a paycheck.<\/p>\n

Must this be an \u201call-or-nothing\u201d decision? \u00a0That is, a salary and benefits package appropriate for a professional, or nothing at all?<\/p>\n

Case 2: \u00a0a worker at a thrift store. \u00a0In some cases, such as Goodwill, these are paid staff. \u00a0In other cases, such as the Sparrow\u2019s Nest thrift stores<\/a> around us, these are volunteers. \u00a0Obviously, the more people volunteer their time, the more profits from sales can flow through to the programs the charity provides. \u00a0And the particular thrift store that I shop at tends to have retired ladies at the counter \u2014 but presumably they can\u2019t staff the entire store\u2019s opening hours purely with volunteers. \u00a0So how should they determine the right compensation for their paid staff? \u00a0Perhaps there are even prospective volunteers for whom money is tight, and they\u2019d be happy to volunteer, but need at least some income (e.g., to supplement their Social Security checks), or maybe even \u201cin-kind\u201d income like credits towards items in the store. \u00a0And, again, if they transform the paid jobs into \u201creal jobs\u201d with benefits packages, that\u2019s less money raised for their cause. \u00a0And if everyone was paid, and paid at a \u201cfair wage,\u201d if the thrift store can no longer raise funds, it shuts down. \u00a0(Which, incidentally, has happened around here \u2014 operating a thrift store is not a guaranteed moneymaker.)<\/p>\n

Case 3: \u00a0a schoolteacher at a Catholic school. \u00a0Well, this is in some ways, a different situation. \u00a0Even if every Catholic school in America shut down, because there aren\u2019t enough parents able to pay tuition at the levels required to fund a compensation package that\u2019s been determined to be \u201cjust\u201d and \u201cfair,\u201d those kids would still need to be educated, so, after some transitional headaches, presumably those displaced teachers would find jobs at public schools. \u00a0And the idea of Catholic education is gone (to be replaced by debates about whether religious ed teachers are paid stipends or not), but it doesn\u2019t leave unemployment in its wake.<\/p>\n

So do you see a distinction between \u201cjobs that would have to exist in any case because the work must be done\u201d and \u201cjobs that wouldn\u2019t exist at all if they paid a \u2018living wage\u2019 so it\u2019s better to have a low-paid job than none at all\u201d? \u00a0Or are we better off maintaining\u00a0the bright line between volunteer work and living wage-paid jobs?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a simple answer here, and offer this as something to chew on today.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

image: \u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3ACommunityClosetThriftStoreItems.jpg; By Sparklingdawg (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0) or GFDL (http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/copyleft\/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

if the alternative is no wages? That\u2019s the natural follow up to my comment on the Archdiocese of Chicago parental leave policy. One could substitute \u201cprovide poor or no employee benefits\u201d for \u201cpay low wages,\u201d of course \u2014 which would encompass decisions about health insurance provision, or time off, or retirement benefits. And the lens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":4570,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-4566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-minimum-wage"],"yoast_head":"\nIs it just to pay low wages . . .<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"if the alternative is no wages? That's the natural follow up to my comment on the Archdiocese of Chicago parental leave policy. 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