The Seven Duties of the Wealthy Owner
and the Employer by Leo XIII (1891):
1. Not to look upon their work people as their
bondsmen, but to respect in every man his dignity as a person ennobled by Christian character. They are reminded that, according
to natural reason and Christian philosophy, working for gain is creditable, not shameful, to a man, since it enables him to
earn an honorable livelihood.
2. Not to misuse men as though they were things in
the pursuit of gain.
3. To value them solely for their physical powers―that
is truly shameful and inhuman.
4. Justice demands that, in dealing with the
working man, religion and the good of his soul must be kept in mind. Hence, the employer is bound to see that the worker has
time for his religious duties; that he be not exposed to corrupting influences and dangerous occasions; and that he be not
led away to neglect his home and family, or to squander his earnings.
6. The employer must never tax his work people
beyond their strength, or employ them in work unsuited to their sex and age.
7. His great and principal duty is to give
every one what is just. Doubtless, before deciding whether wages are fair, many things have to be considered; but wealthy
owners and all masters of labor should be mindful of this―that to exercise pressure upon the indigent and the destitute
for the sake of gain, and to gather one's profit out of the need of another, is condemned by all laws, human and divine. To
defraud any one of wages that are his due is a great crime which cries to the avenging anger of Heaven. “Behold, the
hire of the laborers…which by fraud has been kept back by you, crieth; and the cry of them hath entered into the ears
of the Lord of Sabbath.”
8. The rich must religiously refrain from cutting
down the workmen’s earnings, whether by force, by fraud, or by usurious dealing; and with all the greater reason because
the laboring man is, as a rule, weak and unprotected, and because his slender means should in proportion to their scantiness
be accounted sacred.
