Employment Contracts

All exchanges in a free market are legitimate, provided:

• there is not deception;
• the seller owns the thing be sold:
• there is not coercion;

and the buyer and seller freely agree on the price.

Labour market transactions are different. Once a person becomes an employer of labour, they take on additional responsibilities. They are not free to pay what the market will bear. They cannot just pay the lowest wage rate that they can get away with. Employment contracts are different from other market transactions.

God’s Instructions for Economic Life set some boundaries on employment contracts. Employees are neighbours, and should be treated as such. A critical part of being a good neighbour is to pay generous wages. God's people should not be satisfied with paying the minimum wage. God expects more than that. They should pay the person enough for them to live on.

The employer should not just think about their convenience. They must do what is best for the employee. If the person were really poor, they would not be able to wait until the end of the week for their money, because they would be without food. Even though it is inconvenient for the employer, the poor person should be paid each day. They have done the work, so they are entitled to the pay. In the modern world, weekly or fortnightly pay has become the standard, but that makes life really hard for some people.

Do not defraud or rob your neighbour. Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight (Lev 19:13).

God's guidance for economic life says that holding back the wages of a hired worker overnight is the same as defrauding them. Employees are not disconnected people. They are neighbours that employers must love and care for.

Jesus told employers that they should be considerate in the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matt 20:1-16). The employer promised to pay the employees who only worked for part of a day "what is right"(v 4,7). The Greek word is dikaion, which means righteous. This employer wanted to do the right thing. For Jesus listeners, what is right would be what is specified by the law. The workers who were employed for the whole day were offered a denarius. That was the standard pay for a day's work at that time.

The employer paid every worker a denarius, even though some had only worked for a few hours, while others had worked for a whole day. The reason was that a person needed a denarius to buy a day's rations. These people were on the poverty line, living from one day to the next. The employer was considerate. He decided to pay each person enough to buy food for the day. This was a generous application of the command to pay employs each evening (Deut 24:15). An employer has an obligation to give his neighbour enough food that he will be strong enough to work the next day.

Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous (Matt 20:15).

Being considerate and providing for a neighbour is more important than being fair.