Paying wages

A good principle for a Christian businessperson, who strives to achieve God’s objectives, is that he treats employees, with whom he has been entrusted, as his family. God is primarily interested in relationships, and a guiding question in decisions over salary is, “how would I treat her if she was my daughter?” The salary policy of the employer is defined by those two qualities, described by Micah (Micah 6:8). Act justly and love kindness.

As Christians, we are accountable to the Lord for paying our employees a fair wage, on time.

The question of what constitutes a fair wage is a tough one. Business needs and personal needs often conflict. Timothy argues that a Christian employer will want to help his employees to provide for their families. Rewarding employees for excellent work is a principle used in Luke’s account of Jesus rewarding servants who used the money entrusted to them well.

James gives stern warnings about not paying wages on time. Jesus used an illustration of a master returning and holding his manager accountable for the way he is looking after the master’s business. He says, ‘“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?” If God has put you in charge of His company, He will also help you pay what they deserve. God will never give you an assignment that you cannot pay for!

In our business of delivering specialized services to the European Space Agency, our main competitive advantage was our people. The Lord brought many capable people to our business to conduct the services required in space science, safety and engineering. Our customers depended on support from well-trained and satisfied people. In fact, our customers at the Agency knew we paid our employees well, because contract proposals needed to be transparent and show costs, even salaries paid. We were never the cheapest, but our customers knew our people were good at their jobs! During the start-up of our company, we sometimes had to go without salaries ourselves in order to pay our employees!

Question for the day
How are you paying your employees? According to God’s plan for them? Justly, fairly, and out of love for their wellbeing?