Justice of Jesus demands fair wages for a fair living

Workers deserve basic protections and the opportunity to earn a fair living, yet the N.C. Department of Labor is failing to enforce the laws providing these basic protections.

In my faith tradition, the story from Matthew 20:1-16 is often told of an employer who hired people early in the morning, middle of the morning, mid-day, mid-afternoon and finally end of the day – 5 p.m. to be exact. When quitting time came and folks lined up for their pay, they were all paid the same amount.

Naturally, those who had “borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat” grumbled. Any of us would. It’s not fair. Undoubtedly, no one showed up for work the next day at this vineyard until 5 p.m.

The point of the story, of course, is not fair wages. The point is fair living – there is a minimum threshold for daily subsistence, the cost of basic food, shelter and clothing. Some traditions call this a living wage. Other traditions call it a daily wage, or a denarius. One denarius buys the basics for one day of living. Paying a person for half a day’s work is like telling the person to live half a life.

Still, the idea of paying a person enough each day to live another day is required only of people who follow Jesus Christ. For Christians, fair living implies fair wages. The dignity of one’s life – not the economic imperative – is the operative feature.

For employers who don’t subscribe to Christian precepts, we have laws to guard the fair treatment of workers. These laws, interestingly enough, can also be traced back to Scripture and are, no doubt, the backdrop for the story Jesus tells about the laborers in the vineyard.

Jesus would know what every Christian and Jewish person today also knows: God has specific imperatives about paying people when they work (Deut 24:14-15). The directive to pay people on time – especially the poor, whose lives more readily depend on regular income than do their employer’s – is lodged in a long list of social safety nets decreed by God.

The labor laws of North Carolina do not demand the kind of justice Jesus advocates – that employers provide fair wages that enable fair living. But our laws do offer basic economic protection, including the requirement that workers should be paid for the hours they work.

Unfortunately, many workers in North Carolina are not paid for the hours they work. According to the N.C. Department of Labor, wage theft drains almost $4.7 million from employees. Some workers are not paid the legal minimum wage, some do not receive overtime pay for overtime work and others are not paid for working outside their normal shifts.

And when employers refuse to pay their workers the wages they’ve earned, it’s called wage theft.

Typically, wage theft affects low-wage earners, the very people already struggling for the fair living that fair wages would protect. Minimum-wage violations occur most often in textile manufacturing and repair services. Overtime violations occur in the child care industry and among cashiers. Thank goodness the people taking care of our children have a higher sense of responsibility than the people paying them.

Workers who are paid what they earn have more money to spend in the local economy, and they pay more in state and local taxes. This means employers who cheat workers are cheating us all. These illegal practices can readily be prosecuted according to the laws of our state.

Those of us who follow Christ call on Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry to enforce the laws of North Carolina. That’s her job. Meanwhile, we’ll do our job and keep working on fair wages for fair living.

This story was originally published October 22, 2015 at 5:02 PM with the headline "Justice of Jesus demands fair wages for a fair living."