Skip to content Well Versed - Chapter 17 - Minimum Wage Jun 9 · 11 min ...more
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Dr. Jim Garlow is a lifelong pastor who most recently served in San Diego, California, and now leads Well Versed, a ministry dedicated to bringing biblical
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0:00 Hey. We're back in the Wellverse Small Group series with chapter 17 on minimum wage.0:06 I was gonna preach a sermon on an unusual topic. The topic, minimum wage. And somebody said to me, nobody cares about your sermon on minimum wage. I said, well, you may be right,0:19 but if you're making minimum wage, you're gonna care about it. If you're an employer and you're paying and you know you meant to pay more or you can get by paying less, you're gonna care about what the Bible says about0:30 it. If you're a high school kid and you're making minimum wage, you're gonna care about it. If you're a parent who's got a kid who's gonna go to college and he's working for minimum wage, you're gonna care about it. If0:42 you're a husband and wife with 3 kids and you're getting paid minimum wage and you can't make it, you're you're bottom line is a lot of people are gonna care about minimum wage. Does does the Bible really speak to the0:52 issue of minimum wage? And I would contend that it does. And what does it say? Let me lay out some biblical principles. If you have time to lay out the scriptures, you'll have to check that out on the book, Well Versed1:03 Biblical Answers of Today's Tough Issues. But it's a bunch of scriptures, Old Testament and particularly a few New Testament ones, where it says several things. Number 1, the first 1 talks about the work environment.1:14 Produce a healthy work environment. That's the that's the first thing comes from scripture, several places in the Old Testament. Number 2, don't take advantage of workers and1:25 abuse them in any way. The Old Testament is very clear about that 1. Number 3, pay in a timely fashion. Don't hold back paying workers once they've done the1:37 work. Number 4. Now this gets a little more delicate. There should be a a a free market in terms of negotiating wages. Now Now, I'm gonna I'm gonna put 31:49 of these issues together here. We're gonna go to Matthew chapter 20 in a moment. There should be a free market when it comes to negotiating wages. Nowhere in the Bible is the government involved in the negotiation of1:59 wages. Nowhere in the bible is there the equivalent of a trade union, a union involved that creates a hostile environment between employee and employer. The biblical relationship between the2:11 employer and employee is radically different than that which is created by by both government being involved and by a union being involved. Now let me come back I'm gonna come back to this 1 in in just a moment. Let me2:23 go to number 5. Concern. The employer should have concern for the employee. And number 6, they the the the employer these 3 together, I'm gonna look at a a2:35 little bit more. The employer should be willing to potentially reduce some profits in order to help the employed person. Listen, we'll talk about that in just2:47 a second. 7, people need a living wage, a livable wage. However, we should never confuse a living wage with a beginning2:58 wage. There's a difference between a living wage or a livable wage and a beginning wage. Some high school sophomore with no experience working after school to save some money for college3:11 shouldn't be getting paid the same thing as a person who is needing a living wage. Now we'll we'll talk about that in a moment. I'm saying again, I don't want the government involved and I don't want the unions involved.3:21 You say, Jim, you're being naive. You don't realize how people take advantage of me. Well, what I'm calling for is biblical understanding. Let's go on a little bit more. Number 8, respecting the employees3:34 and at the same time serving the employer. A respect for a respect for the employee, at the same time, a service3:46 attitude towards those who hire us. And then number 9, investing in the employees and their family. Now those are the the principles from scripture, but I wanna go back to this 1.3:58 Free market where the employer and the employee negotiate their wage and in concern for the person they're employing, for the unemployed, and and then be willing to reduce some profits if4:09 needed. If if it's possible to do that, sometimes not as possible, but reduce the profits for the sake of the unemployed. Now, let me walk through Matthew chapter 20. Most of what I've been sharing is Old Testament4:20 principles and you can check it out here. But in Matthew chapter 20, incredible passage where a man who owns a vineyard hires some people early in the morning. They go out, he said, I'm gonna pay you a denarius for the4:30 day. If you work for me, they agree to it, they go out and they go work. A little bit later, he hires some more people. He said, I'm gonna pay you a denarius if you work for the rest of the day. They said, we'll do it.4:39 He hires some more people later in the day. He says, I'll pay you a denarius. He worked for the rest of the day. He hires some more, and finally, with only an hour or less, he hires some people. He said, I'll pay you a4:47 denarius for the day if you'll go work for me. Now they go out and they work. They come in there done at the end of the day. He pays all of them the same amount. Well, the people who worked all day are ticked off to the4:58 fact that people who worked only an hour are getting paid the same amount. I don't blame them. I would be too. But here's what he said. Are you angry at me for my generosity? I was generous to those who only worked part5:10 of the day. He says, also, did I not honor my word with every 1 of you? Did we have an agreement? I would pay you this much if you work this long, and I honor the agreement with every 1 of you that I hired you today. I5:21 said, yes. You did honor your agreement. Why did he pay the same amount to some people who only could work an hour at the end of the day? Well, it had to do with this issue, how much they needed for the5:33 day. Let's just back up a little bit to his story. He saw some people unemployed. I I used to read that story and think the reason he kept hiring through the day is because he was eager to get the5:45 harvest in. Now I grew up on the rural area. I grew up in in on farms, so I understand harvest. I grew up with on a wheat farm and a corn farm. And I understand that the crops can be hailed out. There's a storm that can5:56 wipe out your crop in that 6 months of your income. And so when I grew up on the farm, we knew we only had a short span of time to get the crop in. And so sometimes we would hire what's called custom combiners to get6:07 more combines in to harvest the wheat because we needed to get in right away. We didn't have enough workers ourselves enough equipment ourselves. But that wasn't why he did this. He didn't keep hiring to get his harvest6:18 in. Instead, he walked through the village and he saw some people standing there. He said, why are you not working? And they said, no 1 has hired us. He was concerned for the unemployed. Why? There6:30 is something of the about the unemployed when you don't have a work, when you don't have a job, it devalues you. It wounds you. It puts it puts shrapnel in your spirit.6:42 And he was willing to reduce his profits by hiring people who didn't get jobs, couldn't get jobs. I don't want the government involved in this. If at all possible,6:54 you may say, Jim, that's naive. I don't think so. You may say, what is naive to think the unions don't have to be involved. I don't like the hostility the union brings in the negotiation process.7:06 Workers and employers employers together, coming together. This is the biblical mindset, and it's it's where they respect each other, where they wanna invest in each other. 1 wants to the employers wants to serve the7:18 company. I want your company to succeed. I want it to do well. And the result was he had a lot of happy workers. He worked he worked he employed all those people. He did7:30 reduce his profit some from what it might have been, but the result is there were a lot of people who were employed for the day who would not have had a job that day. That was a good employer.7:42 You say, well, that can't work. Well, I grew up on a family farm. Everybody who ever worked for my dad wanted to work for him again because my dad didn't pay minimum wage. My dad wanted to bless people. There were times7:53 when I said, dad, I don't think we need this many we called them hired hands. We don't need this many guys working today. He says, well, we may not, but I got certainly things I can do. And I have the funds, and they8:05 need the work. There were times I saw my dad actually hire more people than what he needed at that time simply to bless those people. This very principle, I grew up in a home that lived it out. My8:17 dad liked to invest in in mainly young guys. And, boy, they like the relationship with him. They kept contact through the years. He was always proud of how he developed them for the for the next place. And you may8:29 say, well, that's that's a small family farm, small operation, small business. Yes, it is. But take Hobby Lobby. The government doesn't force Hobby Lobby with its I don't know. How many is that? 15, 20000 employees? The8:40 government doesn't force them to pay almost, you know, time and a half or time and a half of the minimum wage or or almost double minimum wage. The government doesn't force them to pay8:52 1 and a half minimum wage, but they do. They pay over that. And they they close at certain times. A craft store shouldn't be closed quite that early, but they close so their families can get home. They close on Sunday of9:03 any day. A craft store ought to be open on Sunday, but they close on Sundays observing the Sabbath day, but at the same time, recognize their employees need that time. This is a company that9:15 has a mission statement that invest in its employees. And I would contend if we would follow the scripture on the minimum wage issue. Oh my goodness. What a difference it can make in our9:27 nation.9:31 This chapter talked about minimum wage. In the passage Matthew 20, Jesus tells a story of a landowner and his hired hands. And 4 key principles stuck out to me. The need for free wage9:43 negotiations on both sides of the agreement. Number 2, the need for fair wages to be given and received. Number 3, the need for flexible wages to be negotiated by9:55 both parties. And number 4, no third party is involved such as the government or union. What did you guys think about this chapter?10:02 I really love this chapter. And, 1 of the things that stood out to me was respect for there has to be respect for their employee there, and there has to be a service attitude for the employer. You know. And when you10:12 really focus on the guy that was doing the hiring, the reason why he hired them and what he was paying them, 1, he was paying them what they needed for that day, which really stuck out to me. And then he only hired them10:23 because they were unemployed. And me personally, I felt like when I was unemployed in the past, you know, it was a waste of life, you know.10:30 Yeah. And 1 of the 1 of the neat principles in this book is this idea of the employer and employee relationship. I've been a business owner myself and, I've seen my parents, own a real estate franchise and10:42 they still operate it today and really see them invest into their people, invest into their employees and in turn, watch the employees serve and, and sacrifice for the company. And this creates an unbelievable work10:54 environment.10:54 Mhmm.10:55 No government or union is needed. It's just an employer investing into people and employees serving. Mhmm.
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