CSDC 302

Remuneration is the most important means for achieving justice in work relationships.⁶⁵⁹ Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 19: AAS 73AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 73 (1981) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1981), 625-629. The “just wage is the legitimate fruit of work”.⁶⁶⁰ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2434; cf. Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno: AAS 23AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 23 (1931) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1931), 198-202: “The Just Wage” is the title of Chapter Four (nos. 65-76) of Part Two. They commit grave injustice who refuse to pay a just wage or who do not give it in due time and in proportion to the work done (cf. Lv 19:13; Dt 24:14-15; Jas 5:4). A salary is the instrument that permits the labourer to gain access to the goods of the earth. “Remuneration for labour is to be such that man may be furnished the means to cultivate worthily his own material, social, cultural, and spiritual life and that of his dependents, in view of the function and productiveness of each one, the conditions of the factory or workshop, and the common good”.⁶⁶¹ Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 67: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1088-1089. The simple agreement between employee and employer with regard to the amount of pay to be received is not sufficient for the agreed-upon salary to qualify as a “just wage”, because a just wage “must not be below the level of subsistence”⁶⁶² Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 131. of the worker: natural justice precedes and is above the freedom of the contract.