Section 2. On Hiring

609. Notions. 1. Hiring is a contract by which one person obligates himself to furnishing certain labor, and the other to paying wages for the labor.

a. The object of this contract is not that which is produced by industry or labor, and the price which corresponds to the value of the thing produced, but on the one side labor, or rather operative power (die Arbeitskraft), which one person lets to another so that the latter may use it for a determined end, and on the other side the price which corresponds to the value of the labor.

b. The labor which on one side constitutes the object of this contract refers to personal work to be furnished, whether the work to be furnished is servile or liberal, fruitful or unfruitful. Therefore to this belong the hiring of servants, workers, craftsmen, artists, physicians, etc. The circumstances of the times demand that the contract of hiring entered between masters and workers be considered chiefly in this place.

c. Hiring differs from mandate, because the mandatary carries out the business in the name of the mandator, but the servant or worker carries out the business enjoined in his own name.

d. Since the object of this contract is not material things, but human actions, which cohere by an inseparable bond with the human person, from hiring, both on the part of the worker and on the part of the master, there arise duties and rights which cannot be passed over without lesion of justice (n. 304 s.).

2. The contract of hiring is not only honorable and licit, but sometimes even necessary from the law of nature.

a. Socialists attack its liceity under a twofold head: both because it is not permitted to man to alienate his powers, and because justice requires that the worker for his labor accept not a determined wage, but the profit owed to him from the fruit of the labor. Concerning the former head there is speech here; concerning the other, below.

b. It is licit and honorable, because man has full ownership over his operations, and therefore can dispose of them at pleasure for honorable ends. It is necessary by the law of nature whenever labor is the only means by which someone can sustain himself and his own, or by which someone can arrive at a certain end that must be obtained from obligation.

3. The natural destination of labor is this, that man may have a means by which he can fulfill the duties enjoined on him by nature. The first of these duties is the duty of preserving life and therefore of procuring for himself necessary support;² the other is the duty of feeding the family and therefore of procuring the necessities of life for his own:³ for from the law of nature it pertains to the man to seek the necessities of life for wife and children, in which matter he must be helped somewhat by his wife and adolescent children.

¹ Encyclical of Leo XIII, Rerum novarum, May 15, 1891; De Gryse, De contractu conductionis (Roeselare: De Meester, 1895); J. Biederlack, Die soziale Frage^4 (Innsbruck: Rauch, 1908), p. 142 ff.; A. Lehmkuhl, Arbeitsvertrag und Strike^2 (Freiburg: Herder, 1904); A. Vermeersch, Quaestiones de iustitia^2 (Bruges: Beyaert, 1904), q. 10, n. 386-469; A. Pottier, De iure et iustitia (Liege: Ancion, 1900), n. 195 ss.; Fr. Schindler, Der reine Lohnvertrag (Jahrbuch der Leogesellschaft for the year 1892, Vienna, 1893); C. Eberle, Arbeit und Lohn (Stans, 1894); H. Pesch, Lohnvertrag und gerechter Lohn (Stimmen aus M. Laach I, 1897), p. 22; Alb. Weiss, die Gesetze fur Berechnung von Kapitalzins und Arbeitslohn (Freiburg: Herder, 1883).

² St. Thomas II-II, q. 187, a. 3.

³ St. Thomas II-II, q. 164, a. 2.

610. On a just wage. 1. A distinction is made between an individual wage, which suffices for feeding one sparing and well-conducted worker on that day, that is, for furnishing food, clothing, and housing, and a family wage, which moreover suffices for feeding a family.

2. The individual wage is one thing minimum, which corresponds strictly to equality with labor considered in itself; another thing maximum, which corresponds to labor considered together with external circumstances.

External circumstances of this kind, which increase the value of the work, are these: expenses for acquiring skill, knowledge, dexterity, experience; the future time of infirmity, old age, interruption of labor; special dangers of life and health which are joined with the labor, etc.

3. The family wage is one thing absolute, which suffices for sustaining a family in ordinary circumstances and always remains the same; another thing relative, which agrees with the number of persons of which the family consists and the weight of the necessities by which it is pressed, and therefore is variable.

a. Those who say that the just wage of work is a family wage intend not the relative but the absolute. But this family wage is not to be understood in such a way that it alone must suffice for feeding the entire family, but in such a way that through it the worker is equal to feeding a family, if there is added, on the one side, that which the wife and children can honorably procure for themselves, and on the other side, prudence in expending goods. This prudence especially consists in this, that the worker who has not yet been joined in marriage put aside the things which are not necessary for support, but the one who has been joined in marriage live more sparingly at that time in which the members of the family are still unequal to labors.

b. A family wage is paid if the frugal and honorable worker, with the customary aid of the family received by work, can: alpha. provide for himself and his own moderate food, clothing, and roof according to condition; beta. observe feast days and indulge in some recreation; gamma. provide for the suitable instruction of children; delta. meet customary cases of illnesses and dangers; epsilon. prepare for himself an old age not needy.¹

¹ Vermeersch, l.c., n. 444.

611. Assertions. 1. Commutative justice first requires that an individual wage, and indeed at least the minimum, be paid to the worker for his work.

a. The equality between what is given and what is accepted, which commutative justice requires, is not preserved unless at least the minimum individual wage is paid: for the worker expends his powers for the utility of the master; therefore the master must render back to the worker at least the wage which suffices for restoring by food, clothing, and housing the powers worn down in favor of the master.

b. Commutative justice requires that the wage be equivalent to the value which belongs to work by its nature; but the value which belongs to work by its nature is this, that through it the worker acquire the necessities of life: The worker is worthy of his food¹ (n. 609, 3).

alpha. Since the worker has the right of receiving from labor the necessities of life, circumstances cannot of themselves occur in which the value of labor and the salary equivalent to entire labor decreases so much that it does not suffice for the support of the worker, provided he is healthy and well-conducted. An infirm worker whose labor does not have a value equivalent to support must, from the ordination of nature, be sustained by the alms of others.

beta. Therefore although because of the objective inequality between labor and wage justice is of itself injured if the wage is unequal to acquiring support, nevertheless cases can occur in which per accidens the just wage is less than the personal minimum.

gamma. Without lesion of justice the worker can require from the master the maximum individual wage: for since in compensation for labor no more is required than is expended for the utility of the master, the equality of thing to thing, which is proper to commutative justice, is not injured.

2. Commutative justice requires that for the labor of a healthy and adult worker a family wage be paid.

a. The just wage of work is that by which the value which belongs to human labor of itself and in itself is compensated; but the value of labor is equivalent to a salary which of itself suffices for feeding a family. For the value of labor must be so great that by his labor the worker is equal to fulfilling his duties; but the duty of a healthy and adult worker is that he sustain himself and his own. For since by nature he has the right of entering marriage and generating offspring, by nature also there lies upon him the duty of feeding a family; therefore labor, which of itself is the only natural means by which he is rendered fit for fulfilling his duties, must be equivalent to a salary suitable for feeding a family.

Nor should it be said that labor is a personal action of the worker and therefore justice cannot require that remuneration for a personal prestation come to other persons besides, who have furnished nothing. For labor is indeed a personal action insofar as it is exercised by the worker alone; nevertheless by its nature it has a social value insofar as it must suffice for feeding not only the worker, but also his family.

b. A worker who has no goods of fortune besides his physical powers, and of this sort is the greatest part of workers, must by necessity remain unmarried unless he accepts a family wage: for he cannot enter marriage unless he can feed a family; he cannot feed a family if he accepts only a personal wage; but such a state of affairs is repugnant to the order of nature, which of itself conferred on each person a destination and right to the matrimonial state: increase and multiply and fill the earth.²

alpha. If the wage paid from contract does not suffice for feeding an ordinary family, the contract of hiring is of itself unjust and therefore void. Yet there exist some cases in which, without injustice, it is permitted to agree concerning a smaller salary: alpha. if the worker because of old age or infirmity or defect of aptitude cannot furnish entire labor: for the master is not bound to compensate labor furnished beyond its value; beta. if the conditions of business in some region are such that this business does not produce so great an abundance of fruits as suffices for a suitable wage; gamma. if the master only from mercy hires a worker whom he does not need.

beta. It is not permitted to the master without injustice to press the wage of labor below the family wage because of abundance of workers: for whether few or many offer their work, the healthy and useful worker has a right to a wage which is equal to feeding a family.

gamma. The duty of taking care that workers receive a family wage falls especially on masters who hire workers: for they themselves must take care both that they sell merchandise at such a price that they can pay a suitable salary to workers, and that they entrust works under those conditions so that undertakers of works are not forced to lessen the wage of workers below the just wage.

3. Justice by no means requires that the worker receive, as the wage of labor, a part of the profit received from the business.

a. Socialists attribute to the worker an inalienable right of requiring a part of the profit received from the business: for they contend that whenever a master with a worker concurs in some business for receiving fruit or profit, he must enter a contract of partnership, by force of which profit must be divided between them according to the proportion of contribution. But there appears no reason of strict right on account of which the master must assume the worker as a partner of the work or commerce and, after entering a contract of partnership, make him a participant also of the profit: for this depends on the free choice of the master. Therefore the worker can enter with the master a contract of location of work; once this has been entered, by strict right he can require nothing else except that a suitable salary be repaid to him for the work furnished.

b. Socialists and those who with them demand that the worker receive a part of the profit from the work to the completing of which he concurs by his labor confuse the contract of partnership with the contract of location: for the contract by which the worker hands over his labor to another for a time, so that the latter may use it for a certain end, is by its nature a contract of location; but for labor hired out to another he can justly require nothing else except a wage which is equivalent to the natural value of labor.

Yet two things must be warned about this matter: a. It is plainly consonant with the nature of things and the dignity of man that a contract of partnership be made between master and worker and that the worker receive a part of the profit obtained by his labor. b. Equity demands that to the worker who has collaborated for completing a work at an agreed wage, at least a modest part of the profit come as a reward, especially if great profit is received from the business.

¹ Matt. 10:10.

² Gen. 1:28.

612. On the wage owed to women. The question has been moved whether women can require for labor furnished by them the same wage as men, or must be content with a lesser one, as in fact a lesser wage is commonly repaid to women. The principles to be held concerning this matter are these.

1. For the same labor, that is, labor of the same quality, the same wage is owed to women as to men.

a. The wage must correspond to the value of the labor; but from the hypothesis the value of the labor is the same whether it is furnished by a man or by a woman: subjectively, human labor; objectively, a thing produced of the same quality.

b. Therefore injustice is committed if the labor of women, for this reason alone that it is feminine, is estimated at a lesser price, and if to women who, for example, labor in the same factory and under the same conditions as men, or are occupied with men in the same office, a lesser price is paid for the same labor.

c. From this mode of acting a great social evil follows: for when women compete with men for the same labor, the occasion of labor is withdrawn from men, and therefore the occasion of procuring necessary support for themselves.

2. Yet because women laboring outside the domestic walls, because of the innate conditions of feminine nature, all things considered, generally cannot furnish the same labor as men, the just wage of feminine labor ordinarily will be less.

Experience establishes that women, in all those businesses which require great bodily strength and long perseverance in labor, such as agriculture, crafts, trade, etc., because of innate weakness and defectibility cannot equal men. Hence with nature itself as guide, it has happened that a distinction has been made between masculine and feminine labors and feminine labors have been estimated at a lesser price. But if in present times women undertake labors which are called masculine, ordinarily they are of lesser value, and therefore their just wage is also less.¹

¹ Cf. Rosler, Die Frauenfrage^2 (Freiburg: Herder, 1907), p. 113 f.; the same author, Die Ubung der Charitas (Freiburg: Herder, 1903), p. 59; Nawiasky, Die Frauen im osterreichischen Staatsdienst (Vienna-Leipzig: Deuticke, 1902).