HOW WOULD YOU REPLY TO THE STUDENT DISCUSSION POST BELOW.

QUESTION FOR THE DISCUSSION: In Matthew 20:1-16 Jesus tells a parable and uses the labor market of His day as an example of the Kingdom of God. What lessons does the parable contain in how we should think about wages and the labor market today?

The parable presented in Matthew 20:1-16 raises valid questions regarding wage fairness.In the parable, the people who had worked all day agreed to be paid a denarius for their toil.The same wage was paid to people who had only worked an hour.Obviously, this upset those who had worked a full day.The parable begs the question, "What determines a fair wage?" Is it the amount of work that is done, the number of hours worked, or the general responsibilities of the worker?

In many jobs, the number of hours worked is the most quantifiable way of determining the pay of the workers.Therefore, many jobs require one to punch a time card to get paid.However, other jobs require constant productivity to make money.Freelance work, for instance, demands that one be taking on responsibility consistently to make money.Finally, many occupations determine pay based on a fixed payment determined by the daily responsibilities of the worker.

The issue with the workers' grievance in the parable is that they agreed to work for a denarius.The employer need only pay them what they agreed upon despite other workers being hired later in the day receiving the same amount for the same job.I believe the lesson in this parable is two fold as far as labor is concerned.The workers' lesson is to understand the value of the work that they are doing so as to avoid being underpaid and to understand the method by which the employer issues payment.The lesson for the employer is to communicate the payment method to the workers so as to avoid conflict and subsequent loss of workers as well as set a standard for the payment to workload ratio.