Money and Wealth (Part 4) – Employees and Employers (Part B)

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Money and Wealth (Part 4) – Employees and Employers (Part B)

1. Employees are called hirelings in the Bible.
   1. Hireling n. – 1. One who serves for hire or wages; a hired servant; a mercenary (soldier).
      • Employees almost never care about the business as much as the business owner does (Joh 10:11-13).
      • If an employee cares about the business and treats it as his own, he will be highly valued by his employer and will almost certain advance in the company.
   2. A hireling is rewarded for his work with wages (Job 7:2).
2. Employees are a type of servant.
   1. Servant – A person of either sex who is in the service of a master or mistress; one who is under obligation to work for the benefit of a superior, and to obey his (or her) commands. 1. A personal or domestic attendant; one whose duty is to wait upon his master or mistress, or do certain work in his or her household. (The usual sense when no other is indicated by the context; sometimes with defining word, as domestic servant.)  2. a. In a wider sense: One who is under the obligation to render certain services to, and to obey the orders of, a person or a body of persons, esp. in return for wages or salary.
   2. Obligation – 1. The action of binding oneself by oath, promise, or contract to do or forbear something; an agreement whereby one person is bound to another, or two or more persons are mutually bound; also, that to which one binds oneself, a formal promise.
   3. Hirelings are a type of servant (Job 7:2).
   4. Servants who work for wages are called hired servants (Lev 25:6, 53; Mar 1:20; Luk 15:17).
   5. Hired – adj. 1. Engaged or employed for payment; let out on hire: mercenary.
   6. Mercenary – n. 1. One who labours merely for hire; a hireling, a mercenary person.
   7. Mercenary – adj. 1. Of persons: Working merely for the sake of monetary or other reward; actuated by considerations of self-interest.
3. The employer is the master; the employee is the servant.
   1. Employer – a. One who employs. Const. of. b. spec. One who employs servants, workmen, etc. for wages.
   2. Master – 1. gen. One having direction or control over the action of another or others; a director, leader, chief, commander; a ruler, governor.
   3. Employee – a. A person employed for wages; b. (nonce-use.) Something that is employed.
   4. Though an employer is the master in the relationship, he is still under obligation by God and by the law to pay the wages he has agreed to pay to his laborers/servants when he has agreed to pay them (Deut 24:14-15; Lev 19:13; Jer 22:13; Mal 3:5).
   5. If you don’t think you’re being paid or treated fairly, ask for a raise and/or better working conditions.
   6. If your employer will not grant your request, you have two choices: quit or keep your mouth shut.
   7. Be content with your wages (Luk 3:14).
      • If you agreed to work for a certain wage, as long as your employer pays you that wage, you have no right to complain about it (Mat 20:10-15).
      • “Never criticize the person who signs your paycheck. If you are unhappy with your job, resign.” (H. Jackson Brown Jr., The Complete Life’s Little Instruction Book, #185).
        1. Side note: never quit a job until you have found another one.
        2. First, you never know how long it might take to find another job.
        3. Second, it’s much easier to find a job when you have a job.
           1. There are two reasons for this.
           2. First, it looks better to a prospective employer when you have a job. If you are unemployed, it could be due to no fault of your own, but it could also be that you were fired for being lazy, incompetent, disagreeable, or dishonest.
           3. Second, you will be far more at ease in an interview when you already have a job and don’t need a different one.
           4. Interviewers will pick up on desperation and be turned off by it. On the other hand, they will also perceive calmness and confidence and be impressed by it.
        4. Complaining about your employer is wrong unless he has not fulfilled his end of the contract (Gen 29:25; Gen 31:7-8, 41; Jam 5:4).
        5. Why would you complain about the one person or company in the world who actually employs and pays you when thousands of others offer you no opportunity and pay you nothing?
4. Being an employer is very difficult.
   1. He had to work and under-consume to save up enough money to start a business.
   2. He had to risk his savings on an endeavor that was likely to fail (as most start-up businesses do).
   3. He had to put in very long hours to start, grow, and sustain his business.
   4. He has to pay his employees whether or not he makes any money.
   5. He has to train his employees and oftentimes make no money from them for a season until they are trained and proficient at their job.
   6. He has to worry about whether he can make payroll.
   7. He has the stress of knowing that his employees and their families depend on him.
   8. He has to pay high taxes.
   9. He has to comply with onerous regulations.
   10. He has to forecast future revenue and hire or fire people accordingly.
   11. Honest entrepreneurs and business owners should be respected and admired, not envied and disdained.
   12. “I have no complex about wealth. I have worked hard for my money, producing things people need. I believe that the industrial leader who creates wealth and employment is more worthy of historical notice than politicians or soldiers.” (Paul Getty)
5. Being an employee is very easy compared to being an employer.
   1. An employee takes on very little risk when he takes job.
   2. He is guaranteed a paycheck, whether or not the company is profitable.
   3. If something goes wrong, the employee could lose his job and have to find another one, but the employer has lost all that he worked for for years.
   4. Normally speaking, when the employee goes home, he doesn’t have to worry about the business.
   5. He gets paid while he is in training and not making the company much, if any, money.
   6. If he isn’t happy with his job, he can find another one doing the same thing or something else.
   7. His taxes are extremely simple.
   8. He has no (or very limited) regulations to comply with.
   9. Most people are not cut out to be self-employed business owners.
   10. This is why most people are employees and very few are employers.
6. It is just and right for an employer to make profit from the labor of his employees.
   1. An employer assumes a lot of risk when starting a business and hiring employees.
   2. In most cases, the employer must pay his employees for their labor before he receives the revenue they generate.
   3. The employee gets paid for his labor immediately (or within a short period of time) and assumes very little risk.
   4. The employer risks paying the employee, but never getting compensated.
   5. The employer provides the employee with equipment, tools, and machines that make him far more productive than he otherwise would be.
   6. The employee would never be able to produce enough output with only his two hands to earn the kind of wage that his employer pays him.
   7. A man would be crazy to start a company, employ others, and take on huge risk to only be paid the same hourly wage that he could make working for someone else.
   8. Profit is the reward that the employer receives for the risk he took.
   9. The only people in this world who are ever going to make a lot of money (with very few exceptions) are business owners.
      • Highly skilled people who work for others can make a good living, but they will never make huge sums of money, because one can only trade his hours for a limited amount of money.
      • Trading time for money will never make one super wealthy.
      • Only those who learn how to make money when they are not working will generate large amounts of wealth.
      • “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.” (Warren Buffet)
      • Although most people will never make huge sums of money from their labor, nearly anyone who has a decent income, is frugal, and saves and invests his money wisely (Mat 25:16-17) can accumulate a lot of money over time.