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Giving the Just Wage Its Due
Giving the Just Wage Its Due
Mar 18, 2025 7:35 AM

Focusing on the universal to the neglect of the particular is a collectivist error, says Dylan Pahman in the first of this week’s Acton Commentary.

Justice, classically defined, is to render to each what is due. A just wage, then, is that wage which remunerates a worker with proper regard to his or her particular contribution, need, and other circumstances. The focus on a living wage reduces this criterion to need alone and furthermore presumes that the need of each worker is the same. But is this actually the case? No, it isn’t.

The full text of the essay can be found here. Subscribe to the free, weekly Acton News & Commentary and other publications here.

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