A just wage “is the legitimate fruit of work”, and “to refuse or withhold it can be a grave injustice”. In fixing it “both the needs and the contributions of each person must be taken into account”, and it should guarantee the worker “the opportunity to provide a dignified livelihood for himself and his family on the material, social, cultural and spiritual level”. John Paul II called it “the concrete means of verifying the justice of the whole socioeconomic system”. For an adult responsible for a family it means pay “which will suffice for establishing and properly maintaining a family and for providing security for its future”. The Code binds the Church’s own administrators “to pay a just and decent wage to employees so that they are able to provide fittingly for their own needs and those of their dependents”.
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