Video Transcript: "Compensation"

In this video, we're going to talk about biblical standards for compensating your  workers. First of all, we're called to pay fair wages in James 5:4, we have a  sobering passage here, particularly for employers. It says, Behold the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields and which has been withheld by you cries out  against you, and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the  ears of the Lord of the Sabbath. And I mean, this is the kind of thing that sent  God's people into exile back in the Old Testament that we read about. It was that practice of social injustice, and actually have a paper about that, but I'll include  in the notes for this particular unit. I'd encourage you to go and read that. But as  I studied that, I realized, wow, God just I mean these, these issues of  compensation and taking advantage of people's efforts is something that God  takes very seriously, and that we ought to as well. And oftentimes it's really not  that we're we're just kind of going with the going rate, right? You know, we're just kind of, this is what is customary, and so we just kind of assume that that is the  standard for compensation, and that's why we're doing this course, because it's  biblical standards for businesses, not just the world standards for businesses.  And Jesus goes on to say, the laborer is worthy of his wages. And so with that,  we have to consider the investments being made by our workers, and that might not only be just with their time, just okay, they worked one hour, therefore, I think that they should get paid X amount. But that's kind of a complicated call to  make, because particularly in more highly skilled fields, you have to consider  how much work have they done to develop the skills that they have and and  also, we're not just talking about by skills that they know how then I use Excel as as an example that they are just kind of they're a whiz with Excel, and they know how to do all the formulas, and they know how to make all These amazing  spreadsheets. When we talk about skills, we're talking about in the biblical  sense of the prudence of the the understanding and discernment and that kind  of skill. And then we're also talking about the kind that Solomon talked about,  which is the diligence and the work ethic and the the readiness and just just  pursuing things, getting the job done, those kinds of investments. But there's  also investments that somebody's made into education and and that they have  committed that how much is integrity worth to your company? How much are  those soft skills worth your company hard skills, and I'm not just talking about,  like I said, the specific task that you might want them to do, because you can  teach, you can train on those specific tasks, but those skills are the things that  we really ought to be valuing as Christians in the marketplace, and so pay fair  wages and to nuance this a little bit, I would also say, don't expect a day's work.  If you won't pay a day's wage, or if you just simply can't afford a day's wage,  maybe you're just kind of in that place where somebody is willing to work for  you, but they're also going to need to have a part time job, and so I would make  sure that, if you can only afford X amount, that that you allow them to scale back their hours so that they can do other things on the side, that they can go and get

side jobs to take care of their family, to get a complete day's wage if you just  can't afford that. There's a passage in Matthew 20 where Jesus shared this  parable about these these workers, and then one showed up at the very end,  almost to the at the point where everyone was about to go home for the day and and just Does, does some work. And so the guys that went out into the field at  the early part of the day are just demoralized. They're wondering, why is this guy getting paid the same as the rest of us? And the master says, Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. So I don't  know exactly why he decided to, you know, give the same to the one that was  hired last as the one that was hired at the early part of the day per. Perhaps it  was because he recognized that both workers, regardless, needed a day's wage and and so even though one was hired later, they still had needs for their family,  and they still they both put in effort. And certainly it is the owner's prerogative. It  is the the leader of the company, whoever is calling the shots for that company.  It is their prerogative to be able to to to compensate people equally in this in this  instance, if that's what he or she believes is the right thing to do. But I think the  the principle here as well, is that people still need a day's wage and and so I  don't think from what we see here and the way that when you look at the other  parables, there were wicked, lazy stewards. And Jesus was very clear about  what happened to those wicked, lazy stewards. This guy in Matthew 20 was not  one of those kinds of stewards, but he was somebody who needed a day's  wage. Maybe he didn't hear about the opportunity for the job until late in the day, whatever the case was, the the owner, the master, decided that it was the right  thing to do to pay them all a day's wage. And so the going rate might not be  sufficient. And and this is where and I, and I appreciate the book written by Jeff  Van Duzer, and there's an interview with him that I'm going to include in this  particular segment that I'd like you to go and listen to. But one of the things that  he points out that just really spoke to me was that if you're familiar with Adam  Smith's the book The Wealth of Nations, and that whole idea about the invisible  hand of market forces and how markets correct each other, correct them over  time, and so that they don't get out of balance, that they become sustainable  With supply and demand and all of that and and so what he's saying is that the  invisible hand that Adam Smith is talking about of market forces doesn't always  equate to the hand of God. And so unfortunately, in certain parts of the world,  you know, maybe people have this, this idea that that that somehow, whatever  hap whatever the market is doing, that's just what God wants to happen, or that  that's just the way God designed it to happen. Or maybe that's, that's karma, or  that's, you know, Inshallah, whatever you know, whatever the case is, but the  but what I'm getting at here is that the hand of God, as Jeff Andrews says, does  not equate to the invisible hand of market forces that Adam Smith was talking  about, Therefore, the going rate in your market for a particular skill set might not  be sufficient, and it might not be the state the standard of pay that we are called 

to live up to as Christians in the marketplace and consider the cost of living  people, of people. So if they're living in certain parts of the world or certain parts  of your country, there's going to be a higher or lower cost of living, you know,  consider all of that, as well as the investments that they've made, as I talked  about on the previous slide, to make sure that you are compensating people  fairly, considering things like what they've invested, what is their cost of living  and and if you can't, if you just can't, if you say I can't afford to pay somebody  for a full day's work, then don't expect that full if I can, if You can't pay him a full  day's wage, don't expect a full day's work. And so the caveat here, even though  we ought to consider their cost of living when, when it gets into character issues. I mean, certainly there are points where you might have to just let somebody to  go. And yeah, at least here in the US, we have unemployment that people can  collect if they get let go from their job, or if they get laid off, or whatever the case is. So we have things like that built into the culture. I recognize that that's not the case in every part of the world, but if somebody gets let go. I mean, it's, it's the  employer certainly does still have a responsibility to help that person move  along and make sure that they're able to at least kind of stay on their feet for a  time until they can get another job. But it is not your responsibility to reward  laziness or because, like Paul said, and we talked about this in a previous unit,  that if you don't work, you don't eat, and so therefore, even though you need to  eat, it's not an entitlement in the in the sense of if you're just going to not  contribute, then there should, and you have the means to contribute through  working, then there really is no good reason why you should be rewarded,  because all it does is Do yourself a disservice, and you start to think that I don't  have To contribute I don't have and and that's destructive for the person. That's  destructive for the community, and they're not living up to all that God has called them to be and created them to be. So while we should consider the cost of  living for a person, that doesn't mean that everybody gets paid the same, or that  everybody should get paid the same, or that somebody who is just lazy, in a  Biblical sense, lacks character, should get paid the same as somebody that  does have strong character, and that has through that character has done the  things to make the investments into developing their their skills that God has  given to them. And so these are all just some issues to think about, and also  some standards to consider from a biblical perspective as we go forward with  compensating people according to biblical standards. All right, see in the next  video.