Is a Living Wage a Just Wage?
- A Relational Concept. A just wage is an aspect of a fundamental ethical relationship between employer and employee, community and society.
- Grounded in Dignity. A just wage is necessary to maintain a life of dignity for workers. ...
- Between Ethical Minimum and Maximum. ...
- Sustainable and Equitable. ...
- Linked With Character and Virtue. ...
What is a “just wage?
A just wage “allows [workers] to live a truly human life and to fulfill their family obligations in a worthy manner.” Yet the encyclical does not specify that a man must earn enough to provide for his wife and children, or that a just wage serves as a protection of motherhood and the family.
What is the difference between justified wage and minimum wage?
Justified wage is the wage level that is high enough to attract workers but low enough to enable employers to offer employment. The divergence between a justified wage and minimum wage may depend on several factors including the state of the economy and level of unemployment.
What are the benefits of just wage?
A just wage offers disposable income, enabling savings and property ownership; provides benefits in the form of educational enrichment, professional development and skills enhancement; and promotes opportunities for advancement and income growth. Further, a just wage structure facilitates personal and community development.
Does agreed agreements justify wages?
Agreement between the parties is not sufficient to justify morally the amount to be received in wages. This concise teaching on the just wage begins with the concept of human work as a positive good, both for individuals and for society.
What is your definition of a just wage?
A just wage covers the basics necessary for a minimally decent life for a worker and the worker's household, including hours of work that are predictable, not excessive, and provide regular rest to facilitate a decent life away from work.
What is a just wage in today's society?
A just wage – often referred to as a “living wage” in political organizing – is a level of pay that enables workers to support themselves and their families in a way that is consistent with human dignity, without having to work a second job or rely on government subsidies.
What does Catholic Social Justice say about living wage?
The payment of a wage sufficient for a worker to provide for his needs and those of his family is a requirement of natural justice, transcending any agreement between employer and employee. The reception of a living wage is a natural right. Therefore, depriving a worker of a living wage is a form of theft.
How a wage can be considered as fair and just?
A fair wage is a wage that is considered “fair” by the employee. This salary, received in return for individual work performed, will encourage the employee to invest more or less in their daily tasks, but also to keep their current job for longer or less time.
What is the problem of just wage?
Common Issues on Wages Wage indexation to cost of living, where wage is automatically adjusted with the increases of cost of living, is not usually met by majority of the employers. Companies have different interpretations of the justifiable pay for certain job positions, skills and tasks.
What a just wages is and why it is important?
A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withhold it can be a grave injustice. In determining fair pay both the needs and the contributions of each person must be taken into account.
Did the Catholic Church give importance to work?
The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers The Catholic Church teaches that the economy must serve the people. Too often the marketplace takes precedence over the rights of workers. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God's creation.
What is minimum wage for a 21 year old?
£9.18 anAge 18-20 - £6.83 an hour. Age 21-22 - £9.18 an hour. Age 23+ - £9.50 an hour (National Living Wage).
What does the Church teach about the right to a safe workplace?
What does the Church teach about the right to a safe workplace? Companies must make efforts to keep their employees safe, even in professions that are intrinsically hazardous.
What is the just wage theory of St Thomas Aquinas?
A Just Wage. In the Middle Ages St Thomas Aquinas examined the notion of a just wage and concluded that such a wage should include the value of the product produced along with a remuneration to reward the labour of the work effort expended.
Are wage differential justified?
Two, wage differentials are justified given the wide differences in demand and supply of jobs along with wide variations in job requirements like skill, ability, aptitude, knowledge, experience and so on.
What is the difference between living wage and fair wage?
“Fair wage is the wage which is above the minimum wage but below the living wage. The lower limit of the fair wage is obviously the minimum wage: the upper limit is to be set by the capacity of the industry to pay. “ Thus, fair wage depends on different variables affecting wage determination.
What does "furnish" mean?
furnishes the means to cultivate worthily the laborer’s material, social, cultural, and spiritual life and that of his or her dependents
Why does the government need to foster just wages?
Its work is not primarily the payment of wages but to ensure that “the economic system as a whole” supports the payment of a just wage. If it does this well, those who are working have a better chance of cultivating their and their dependents “material, social, cultural, and spiritual life”. While there are countless ways that government can help foster just wages in the economic sector, there are two functions that seem readily apparent.
Do businesses pay more than the minimum wage?
Even though businesses tend to pay more to full-time workers and heads of households typically make more than the minimum wage (see the Bureau of Labor and Statistics statistics again), this does not mean that wages are just. Rather, it means that businesses provide wages “in proportion to the work done”, do so frequently above “the level of subsistence” for full-time workers, and are thus fulfilling the primary “responsibility of the employer” to pay the just wage. Still, this achievement of most businesses does not guaranteed that everyone has enough to live on, have access to the goods of society, or that the economic system is just. These demands seem to go beyond what can be expected of a business. So . . .
Is the minimum wage enough to support a family?
Businesses must pay fairly for the work that is done . Obviously, the current minimum wage is not enough to support a family. As a crude estimate, $7.25 an hour at 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year comes out to a little over $15,000 a year. Yet, the solution is not a simple minimum wage increase.
Do political campaigns oversimplify issues?
Political campaigns oversimplify issues, and this year seems no different . As a reminder that solutions to complex social problems are not typically simple or straightforward, I want to explore some of what it would take to pay a just wage (a kind of complement to my earlier post on what it would take to feed the hungry ).
Does the Church pay wages?
The Church must continue its work on behalf of the poor. Like the government, the church is not primarily responsible for paying wages. Its role is to help make the economic system as a whole favorable to workers and their dependents so that they can live a life with physical and spiritual dignity. The church acting as a whole body and acting through its individual members does amazing work to this end. Part of what the Church does to foster just wages is that it:
Is there more needed to secure just wages?
While more is needed to secure just wages, it is hard to imagine less than what I have sketched here. Thus, to provide a just wage (or to address any one of a number of our social issues) entails:
What is the criteria for a just wage?
Criterion 1: Wage enables decent life for worker and household. A just wage covers the basics necessary for a minimally decent life for a worker and the worker’s household, including hours of work that are predictable, not excessive, and provide regular rest to facilitate a decent life away from work. Further, a just wage rests upon ...
What is the Higgins Labor Program?
The Higgins Labor Program convened an interdisciplinary group of scholars and students to explore this foundational question. Rooting their efforts in the Catholic social tradition’s (CST) commitment to the dignity of work and those who perform it, this Just Wage Working Group identified seven core criteria that together combine to determine the justness of any given wage scenario; together they are visually represented as a honeycomb of hexagons to show their interconnectedness, as well as their embedding within larger political, economic, and cultural contexts.
How is a just wage determined?
A just wage -- as well as a wider just wage structure -- is best determined by negotiation via union recognition, collective bargaining, and regular contracts. In the absence of collective bargaining, a just wage can be encouraged by standardized guidelines featuring due process procedures in wage negotiations and disputes, as well as input via bodies chosen by the workers themselves (staff councils, advisory bodies, etc.). Regardless of union recognition, a just wage structure should include representation of workers in leadership positions (such as boards of directors) and opportunities for co-ownership (via stock options, e.g.).
Is a just wage excessive?
A just wage is not excessive. Within an organization, a just wage structure features a policy inhibiting extreme inequality between the highest and lowest earners; it promotes the sustainability of the enterprise in the long-term interests of all stakeholders.
