What is Fair/Just Compensation for Employees?

There have been times when running a small business that the pay plan I had envisioned changes because of new information brought to my attention. Sometimes, when making a change it creates employee frustration. I get this question "Why didn't you do that for me?"

Here is my answer from Gospel Book of Matthew Chapter 20:

 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?"

16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Other verses that remind us of wages, employment, work, value and ultimate value.

1. Deuteronomy 24:14-15: “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns. You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his heart on it; so that he will not cry against you to the Lord and it become sin in you.

2. Jeremiah 22:13: “Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness And his upper rooms without justice, Who uses his neighbor’s services without pay And does not give him his wages"

3. Ephesians 6:7-8: "With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free."

4.  Thessalonians 3:10-12: "For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread."

5. Romans 6:21-23: "Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

I pray that those of us who have been given the responsibility and privilege to hire employees that we will treat them with respect, mercy, grace, goodness and gentleness and they, in turn, will honor us with hard work and gratitude. I pray for my staff that they will know the goodness and mercy of God and that our work will honor and glorify God.

Let's do justice, love mercy and walk humbly.