Unjust Wages
 

It is all too common that we have men and women who run very lucrative businesses seeking out devious ways to expand their profits even further. One such evil technique involves companies that locate communities where people are so poor that many individuals lack food, and proper shelter. The greed of the men and women that manage the companies that I refer to, go into these communities and employ workers, paying them just enough so that they won’t starve to death (at least not starve right away).

Despite such companies making abundant profits from the labor of poorly compensated workers, such companies feel no obligation to pay these poor employees enough to buy decent food and to obtain adequate shelter.

Yes, I know some of the companies that I speak of here dedicate a tiny percentage of their wealth toward charitable organizations. But this is just an old trick, done to provide a fake show of charity in order to gain the goodwill and trust of their unsuspecting customer base.

Further, many of these companies try to cover up what evil they’re involved in by establishing contracts with third-party firms that will hire workers under the name of the third-party firm, and utilize the third-party firm to drive the poor employees to labor long hours for pay that is close to starvation wages.

To add insult to injury, some of the executives involved in such oppression of the poor claim to be Christian. I’d like to offer a couple passages of scripture below and ask you to consider how God will look upon business managers and owners, and corporate executives, who live like princes but treat their employees as described above:

Jeremiah 22:13-19
King James Version


13 Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;

14 That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

15 Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?

16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD.

17 But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

18 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!

19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.



James 5:1-6

5:1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.

3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.