Minimum Just Wage
From the book "Right and Reason"
Fr. Austin Fagothey, S.J.
Published by TAN Books
The minimum just wage means the least amount any regular workman ought to be paid for his work. By regular workman we mean here an adult competent full-time employee who makes his living by giving his whole working day to his employer. We do not mean children, the physically or mentally handicapped, those engaged part-time or temporarily. These also must be paid justly but they cannot furnish a standard; their pay will be a fair pro­portion of the regular workman's wage. The minimum just wage, of course, will apply only to the unskilled worker, since skilled work will be worth so much more. We shall make no attempt to calculate the actual minimum wage in dollars and cents, for this will vary with the times, but only to find the principle which ought to govern any such calculation.
How can the minimum just wage be determined?
1. Not by the length of time spent in work, for any naïve supposition that time itself has a definitely fixed and constant value is proved untrue by the fact that no man today could live on the wage given fifty years ago; the value of labor-time has fluctuated with the value of money, and time itself can form no standard.
2. Not by the value of the products of labor, for how much of this value is contributed by labor is hard to determine; besides, labor costs are included in the sale price of the product, thus sup­posing that the price of labor has already been set by some other standard.
3. Not by the usefulness of a certain laborer to his employer, for this is rewarded by wages above the minimum but cannot set a standard for the minimum itself; the minimum wage has no ref­erence to the quality of the work, but means the least wage any regular workman should be paid if he is employed at all.
4. Not by the law of supply and demand, because labor is no ordinary commodity on a par with the rest, since it involves the dignity of the human person; in a way it is a commodity with fluctuations of value like any other, but differs in that there is a point below which it cannot go without degrading the human per­son to a subhuman condition. This is where human labor passes outside the field of economics and becomes a moral issue.
5. The only way in which the minimum just wage can be determined is from the function of human labor itself. Why do men work? Why are they willing to put in a day's labor for a sum of money? The answer is obvious: a man works to make a living, to support himself and his dependents. This is why a man will spend his life working for himself, as an independent farmer or artisan or shopkeeper. If a man instead of working for himself sells his labor to another, he does it for the same reason. Even the employer cannot stay in business unless it supports him, and, whatever other interests his work may afford him, this is the fun­damental one. The same is true of the employee. If a man cannot make a living by his work, there is no reason why he should work. The conclusion follows that the minimum just wage is a wage capable of supplying the essentials of a human life.
What are these essentials? More than bare subsistence, for a man is not a beast of burden and to treat him as such is to dis­honor his human nature. More than would satisfy the simple wants of a savage, for a man has a right to share in the civilization of which he forms a part and in the general progress of humanity. His earnings must be graded to the standard of living common in the region where he dwells, though he has no right to demand luxuries and superfluities. Hence we mean the essentials of a human life precisely as human, a decent life befitting the rational kind of being man is by nature.
Is the minimum just wage a personal wage or a family wage, that is, must it be only enough for the worker alone or also enable him to support his dependents? It must be a family wage. The just price of labor, as of anything else, is determined in the open market by the common estimate of men, and the ordinary reason given by men for judging that a wage is too low is: "A man can­not support a family on such a wage." Besides, in the normal ar­rangement of nature the husband is the support of the family, and to fulfill this function he is not only urged by a strong natural instinct but also bound by a strict obligation of the natural law. Therefore a wage sufficient only for the worker's personal support is not really sufficient even for this, for, since he is bound to share it with his family, not enough of it would be left even to support him personally. So the obligation of the natural law is clear: an em­ployer who monopolizes all the earning-power of the father of a family is obliged by the natural law to pay him a wage that will enable him to fulfill his duties to his family under the same natural law. This is an obligation not in charity but in commutative justice, because commutative justice is the virtue that regulates contractual exchanges.
Should this family wage be relative or absolute, that is, should it be scaled to the size of the particular workman's family or be adjusted to the average family? At first sight the above argument would seem to prove that it should be relative, for the workman must support the actual family he has, not some mathematical medium that may not be verified in his case. But a relative wage would lead to untold confusion and conflict. The employer would be faced with an almost hopeless task of clerical work, would be unable to estimate his labor cost for the coming year, and would have too strong a temptation to employ men of smaller families. There would be dissatisfaction among the employees paid differently for the same work, and those with the largest families, who most need work, would have the most difficulty finding and keeping it. Therefore the wage should be adjusted to the average family. Some sort of public subsidy might be necessary for very large families, but this is not strictly the employer's business; it devolves on society as a whole or on the state.
Have only married men a right to a family wage? No, this wage must be paid to all. The reason is that unmarried men have a right to marry, to save money for future marriage, and only a family wage will enable them to do so. This is one of the main reasons urging young men to work industriously. Even an elderly single man has the right to marry, though he may never exercise it, and he should not be penalized. Besides, distinction in wages on this score would lead to trouble, for grasping employers would find pretexts to dismiss men when they marry, and hire unmarried men in their places.
The conclusion is that the minimum just wage must be suf­ficient to support a man and his family in reasonable and frugal comfort. What does such a wage entail? A right to:
(1) A home which is decent, private, and sanitary
(2) Sufficient and wholesome food
(3) Enough time off for sleep and relaxation
(4) Some inexpensive forms of recreation
(5) A small surplus for emergency and insurance
A word of caution may be useful here. While stressing the obligation of the employer, we must not forget the other side of the picture. Our American standard of living is so high that we have come to confuse necessities with luxuries, and our habits of spending are eliminating all regard for thrift, a quality needed for survival in most parts of the world. If a man wants luxuries, he should earn them by developing himself into a skilled worker who will receive a wage far above the minimum.
The changed condition of the modern family adds its problems. Formerly the husband walked to work and had to live nearby; now he needs a car. Formerly the wife contributed more to the family's sustenance by her personal services; she churned the butter, baked the bread, spun the wool, and made the clothes besides cooking the meals and sweeping the house. Now there are prepared foods, manufactured clothes, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, auto­matic kitchens, and countless other appliances. These cost money to buy and operate, and, unless the wife is gainfully employed, must be paid for out of the husband's earnings. How many of these things are minimum requirements for a decent human life in our society so that any employer must pay enough to provide them?
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