{"id":5573,"date":"2016-10-04T10:05:55","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T14:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/scottericalt\/?p=5573"},"modified":"2018-03-10T19:41:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-10T23:41:54","slug":"but-is-it-the-governments-job-to-ensure-a-just-wage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scottericalt\/but-is-it-the-governments-job-to-ensure-a-just-wage\/","title":{"rendered":"But Is It the Government&#8217;s Job to Ensure a Just Wage?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><\/p>\n<style>\nH1, H2, H5, H6 {font-family: vollkorn; font-weight: normal;&rdquo;}\nH4 {font-weight: normal;}\np, li {color: #292e37; line-height: 1.1em; font-size: 95%; text-align: justify;}\nli {margin-bottom: 10px;}\na {color: #aa1111 !important; border: none !important; Font-weight: normal !important;}\n<\/style>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5588\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5588\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scottericalt\/but-is-it-the-governments-job-to-ensure-a-just-wage\/child-labor\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5588\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:1px solid #292e37;padding:3px;\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/668\/2016\/10\/Child-Labor.jpg\" alt=\"Child laborers in Macon, GA, 1909, public domain image\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5588\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5588\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><p style=\"Font-style: normal;text-align:center;margin-top:-15px;\">Child laborers in Macon, GA, 1909, <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Mill_Children_in_Macon_2.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">public domain image<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p style=\"Line-height: 1.1em; font-size: 95%; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 30px;\"><span style=\"float:left;color:#292e37;font-size:175px;line-height: 100px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:3px;\">B<\/span>ut Alt!\u201d a reader asks. \u201cIsn\u2019t the just wage a private contract between employer and employee? Does the Church really say that it is the State\u2019s job?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">Well, you asked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">Now, if a man does not pay his hire a just wage, he commits a sin that cries to heaven for vengeance.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"Margin-left: 45px;\">The catechetical tradition also recalls that there are \u201csins that cry to heaven\u201d: the blood of Abel; the sin of the Sodomites; the cry of the people oppressed in Egypt; the cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan; <strong>injustice to the wage earner<\/strong>. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p3s1c1a8.htm#1867\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">CCC 1867<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This teaching the Church finds in James 5:4.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"Margin-left: 45px;\">Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">\u201cBut Alt!\u201d \u201cIs it really the job of the <em>State<\/em> to pass wage laws? Does the Church say that? Where? Is that not prudential judgment?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">No, it is not \u201cprudential judgment\u201d; and yes, the Church does say that. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crisismagazine.com\/2009\/the-minimum-wage-and-catholic-social-teaching\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Even Crisis Magazine<\/a>, hardly a hotbed of Big Government apologetics, agrees that the Church says that. Fr. Robert Johansen says:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"Margin-left: 45px;\">Workers are due their wages as a matter of justice. The Catechism tells us that \u201ca just wage is the legitimate fruit of work\u201d (2434). But a just wage is not that which will merely provide sufficient food, clothing, and shelter. To live at a subsistence level is to live at the minimum condition of human dignity, and, as St. Thomas Aquinas wrote in the <em>Summa Theologica<\/em>, \u201cNo one is obliged to live unbecomingly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">\u201cIn the Catholic tradition,\u201d Fr. Johansen goes on,<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"Margin-left: 45px;\"><strong>the state must<\/strong>, as the Catechism teaches, \u201cdefend and promote the common good of civil society, its citizens, and intermediate bodies\u201d (1910). Furthermore, \u201c<strong>the state<\/strong> has a responsibility for its citizens\u2019 well-being\u201d (2372). Toward these ends, the state has a legitimate role to play in the ordering of economic life.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe state must.\u201d \u201cAs the Catechism teaches.\u201d The Church gives no room to wiggle on this point.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">Pope Leo XIII writes on this in <em><a href=\"http:\/\/w2.vatican.va\/content\/leo-xiii\/en\/encyclicals\/documents\/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Rerum Novarum<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"Margin-left: 45px;\">[T]he Church improves and betters the condition of the working man by means of numerous organizations; does her best to enlist the services of all classes in discussing and endeavoring to further in the most practical way, the interests of the working classes; <strong>and considers that for this purpose recourse should be had, in due measure and degree, to the intervention of the law and of State authority<\/strong>. (16)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">Some, putting up the armor of political theory against the teaching of the Church, will object here that wages are a private contract. If a man thinks his wage is unjust, he can ask for a raise. Just like that! Or if his boss is a tightwad, he can find another job. Just like that! Simple. Bosses and magnates <em>never<\/em> exploited labor in the good old US of A, before there were laws to prevent it! That just did not happen. Not ever!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">Leo XIII would find such thinking na\u00efve. \u201cThe rich,\u201d he says,<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"Margin-left: 45px;\">must religiously refrain from cutting down the workmen\u2019s earnings, whether by force, by fraud, or by usurious dealing; and with all the greater reason <strong>because the laboring man is, as a rule, weak and unprotected<\/strong>. (RN 20)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He has no power to bargain without state protection. Only the civil law, in Leo\u2019s view, has the power protect the laborer from an unjust wage. Only the civil law can make sure that the rich do not take advantage of the poor.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">Pope St. John Paul II also writes on this in <em><a href=\"http:\/\/w2.vatican.va\/content\/john-paul-ii\/en\/encyclicals\/documents\/hf_jp-ii_enc_01051991_centesimus-annus.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Centesimus Annus<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"Margin-left: 45px;\">These general observations <strong>also apply to the role of the State<\/strong> in the economic sector. Economic activity, especially the activity of a market economy, cannot be conducted in an institutional, juridical or political vacuum. On the contrary, it presupposes sure guarantees of individual freedom and private property, as well as a stable currency and efficient public services. <strong>Hence the principle task of the State is to guarantee this security, so that those who work and produce can enjoy the fruits of their labours and thus feel encouraged to work efficiently and honestly<\/strong>. \u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;margin-left: 45px;\"><strong>Another task of the State is that of overseeing and directing the exercise of human rights in the economic sector<\/strong>. However, primary responsibility in this area belongs not to the State but to individuals and to the various groups and associations which make up society. The State could not directly ensure the right to work for all its citizens unless it controlled every aspect of economic life and restricted the free initiative of individuals. [<strong><span style=\"color: #aa1111;\">Now here is the key part<\/span>.] This does not mean, however, that the State has no competence in this domain<\/strong>, as was claimed by those who argued against any rules in the economic sphere. Rather, the State has a <strong>duty<\/strong> to sustain business activities by creating conditions which will ensure job opportunities, by stimulating those activities where they are lacking or by supporting them in moments of crisis. (48)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"Line-height: 1.1em;\">This is the state\u2019s <em>duty<\/em>, says John Paul II. It is not just what the state <em>may<\/em> do, but what the state <em>must<\/em> do.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">The <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/roman_curia\/pontifical_councils\/justpeace\/documents\/rc_pc_justpeace_doc_20060526_compendio-dott-soc_en.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church<\/a><\/em> also speaks of the state\u2019s role.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"Margin-left: 45px;\">250. In order to protect this relationship between family and work, an element that must be appreciated and safeguarded is that of a family wage, a wage sufficient to maintain a family and allow it to live decently. Such a wage must also allow for savings that will permit the acquisition of property as a guarantee of freedom. <strong>The right to property<\/strong> is closely connected with the existence of families, which protect themselves from need thanks also to savings and to the building up of family property. There can be several different ways to make a family wage a concrete reality. <strong>Various forms of important social provisions help to bring it about<\/strong>, for example, family subsidies and other contributions for dependent family members, and also remuneration for the domestic work done in the home by one of the parents.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">Did you see what I did? The CSD describes a just wage in terms of \u201cthe right to property.\u201d I know of no conservative or libertarian who would deny that income is property, and that a legitimate function of the State is to protect the right to property. Even Ayn Rand says that. How such folks exclude a just wage from property rights, I can not guess.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">The CSD continues.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"Margin-left: 45px;\">The rights of workers, like all other rights, are based on the nature of the human person and on his transcendent dignity. The Church\u2019s social Magisterium has seen fit to list some of these rights, <strong>in the hope that they will be recognized in juridical systems<\/strong>: <strong>the right to a just wage<\/strong>; the right to rest; the right \u201cto a working environment and to manufacturing processes which are not harmful to the workers\u2019 physical health or to their moral integrity.\u201d (301)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">And so on, including a right to unemployment and disability insurance, a pension, social security, and unions. But with regard to the just wage, the CSD also scoffs at any talk that this is a mere private contract.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"Margin-left: 45px;\">The simple agreement between employee and employer with regard to the amount of pay to be received is not sufficient for the agreed-upon salary to qualify as a \u201cjust wage,\u201d because a just wage \u201cmust not be below the level of subsistence\u201d of the worker: <strong>natural justice precedes and is above the freedom of the contract<\/strong>. (302)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">(Did you mark that last part? Natural justice trumps freedom of contract. Note that. But the CCD goes on.)<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"Margin-left: 45px;\">The economic well-being of a country is not measured exclusively by the quantity of goods it produces but also by taking into account the manner in which they are produced and the level of equity in the distribution of income, which should allow everyone access to what is necessary for their personal development and perfection. An equitable distribution of income is to be sought on the basis of criteria not merely of commutative justice but also of social justice that is, considering, beyond the objective value of the work rendered, the human dignity of the subjects who perform it. <strong>Authentic economic well-being is pursued also by means of suitable social policies for the redistribution of income<\/strong> which, taking general conditions into account, look at merit as well as at the need of each citizen. (303)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">Some will object here that the person who serves you your fries at McDonald\u2019s is not doing work worth $15 an hour. But the Church tells us that mere commutative justice is insufficient. A just wage is determined by more than \u201cthe objective value of the work itself\u201d but by \u201cthe human dignity of the subjects who perform it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">As much as abortion is an affront to \u201cthe nature of the human person and his transcendent dignity,\u201d so is an unjust wage.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">And is this the responsibility of the State? You bet it is.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"Margin-left: 45px;\">351. <strong>The action of the State<\/strong> and of other public authorities must be consistent with the principle of subsidiarity and create situations favourable to the free exercise of economic activity. It must also be inspired by the principle of solidarity and <strong>establish limits for the autonomy of the parties in order to defend those who are weaker<\/strong>. \u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"Margin-left: 45px;\">352. The fundamental task <strong>of the State<\/strong> in economic matters is that of determining an appropriate juridical framework for regulating economic affairs, in order to safeguard \u201cthe prerequisites of a free economy, which presumes a certain equality between the parties, such that one party would not be so powerful as practically to reduce the other to subservience\u201d. <strong>Economic activity, above all in a free market context, cannot be conducted in an institutional, juridical or political vacuum<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Above all<\/em> in a free market, the Church says, economic activity can not be conducted in isolation from civil law to protect the rights of workers. And one of those rights is a just wage.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">\u201cIt is necessary for the market and the State,\u201d says the CSD, \u201cto act in concert\u201d (353).<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"Margin-left: 45px;\">In fact, the free market can have a beneficial influence on the general public <strong>only when the State is organized in such a manner that it defines and gives direction to economic development<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">Does the Church tell us that the State must help ensure a just wage? You betcha.<\/p>\n<h6>***<\/h6>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>But Alt!\u201d a reader asks. \u201cIsn\u2019t the just wage a private contract between employer and employee? Does the Church really say that it is the State\u2019s job?\u201d Well, you asked. Now, if a man does not pay his hire a just wage, he commits a sin that cries to heaven for vengeance. The catechetical tradition [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2705,"featured_media":5588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,69],"tags":[308,139,306,144,307],"class_list":["post-5573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-social-doctrine","category-social-media","tag-centessimus-annus","tag-just-wage","tag-pope-leo-xiii","tag-pope-st-john-paul-ii","tag-rerum-novarum"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is It the Government&#039;s Job to Ensure a Just Wage?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Even Crisis Magazine, hardly a hotbed of progressive ideology, affirms that the Church says that it is.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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He received an M.A degree in literary criticism in 1998 from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, and subsequently taught introductory writing and literature at the university level. In 2011, he was received into full communion with the Catholic Church, converting from lifelong Protestantism. He is a Benedictine oblate of St Meinrad Archabbey. 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