What is Catholic Social Teaching? How to understand the bible and tradition and seek to apply it to social conditions? For Catholics, our understanding is formed by the official teaching of our Popes and Bishops. Their social teaching sums up some 4,000 years of Jewish and Christian experience of and reflection upon social issues. It contains an authoritative and deep wisdom.

Pope Leo XIII, 1891 First Social Encyclical. “On the Condition of Workers” (Rerum Novarum) Supported Trade Unions and right to strike. The Just Wage.

Pope Leo XIII, 1891

Pope Leo XIII, 1891 Rerum Novarum “…there underlies a dictate of natural justice more imperious and ancient than any bargain between man and man, namely, that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner. If through necessity or fear of a worse evil the workman accept harder conditions because an employer or contractor will afford him no better, he is made the victim of force and injustice.” (#45)

Msgr. John A. Ryan, 1906 In 1906, U.S. Catholic priest Msgr. John A. Ryan published A Living Wage: Its Ethical and Economic AspectsA Living Wage: Its Ethical and Economic Aspects. One of the earliest Catholic uses of the term “Living Wage”.

Pope Pius XI, 1931 The Fortieth Year (Quadragesimo Anno)

Pope Pius XI, 1931 The Great Depression, 1929 Stock Market Crash Great economic hardship.

Pope Pius XI, 1931 “In the first place, the worker must be paid a wage sufficient to support him and his family….Every effort must therefore be made that fathers of families receive a wage large enough to meet ordinary family needs adequately. But if this cannot always be done under existing circumstances, social justice demands that changes be introduced as soon as possible whereby such a wage will be assured to every adult workingman” (#71).

Pope Pius XI, 1931 “In determining the amount of the wage, the condition of a business and of the one carrying it on must also be taken into account; for it would be unjust to demand excessive wages which a business cannot stand without its ruin and consequent calamity to the workers. “

Pope Pius XI, 1931 “If, however, a business makes too little money, because of lack of energy or lack of initiative or because of indifference to technical and economic progress, that must not be regarded a just reason for reducing the compensation of the workers. “

Pope Pius XI, 1931 “But if the business in question is not making enough money to pay the workers an equitable wage because it is being crushed by unjust burdens or forced to sell its product at less than a just price, those who are thus the cause of the injury are guilty of grave wrong, for they deprive workers of their just wage and force them under the pinch of necessity to accept a wage less than fair.” (#72)

U.S. Catholic Bishops Statement on Church and Social Order (1940): “The first claim of labor, which takes priority over any claim of the owners to profits, respects the right to a living wage. By the term living wage we understand a wage sufficient not merely for the decent support of the workingman himself but also of his family.”

Mater et Magistra, Pope John XXIII 1961 “… the remuneration of work is not something that can be left to the laws of the marketplace; nor should it be a decision left to the will of the more powerful.”

Mater et Magistra, Pope John XXIII 1961 “It must be determined in accordance with justice and equity; which means that workers must be paid a wage which allows them to live a truly human life and to fulfill their family obligations in a worthy manner.”

Pope John Paul Laborem Exercens, On Human Work (1981) “Hence in every case a just wage is the concrete means of verifying the whole socioeconomic system and, in any case, of checking that it is functioning justly. It is not the only means of checking, but it is a particularly important one and in a sense the key means.”

Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI, 2009 Response to recent economic trends, globalisation, and the 2007 recession.

Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI, 2009 “What is meant by the word “decent” in regard to work? It means work that expresses the essential dignity of every man and woman …work that makes it possible for families to meet their needs and provide schooling for their children, without the children themselves being forced into labour; … work that guarantees those who have retired a decent standard of living.”

Pope Francis "Today many social, political and economic systems have chosen to exploit the human person" in the workplace, by "not paying a just wage, not offering work, focusing solely on the balance sheets, the company's balance sheets, only looking at how much I can profit. This goes against God!"

NZ Catholic Bishops 2012

the Church response to hunger “also includes longer term work such as advocating that people receive an income sufficient to feed their families... When the accumulation of wealth and goods by some sectors of the community deprives others of what they need to survive, we have to tackle the systems that perpetuate these inequalities.” Social Justice Week statement

UK and Wales Catholic Bishops Conference statement November 2012

“ The Bishops’ Conference recognises that fair wages are essential to the common good of our society. In accordance with Catholic social teaching, and as part of its mission to support the poor and vulnerable, the Bishops’ Conference fully endorses the principle of the Living Wage and encourages Catholic organisations and charities in England and Wales to work towards its implementation. ”

Justice and Peace Commission, Catholic Diocese of Auckland, July 2013 “Working people need wages which allow them to live with dignity and participate in society. When used in a particular employee/employer context the Living Wage calculation makes a valuable contribution toward determining whether wages are just.”