Fair is a funny concept. Fair to whom? Fair by what standard? What does it mean to be more or less fair?

Consider this a follow up to my post on why money is a touchy subject. As I mentioned, our system isn’t what I call fair, but since that is subjective it’s worth an explanation of what I mean. And since I’m stuck in bed after tweaking my back, there’s no time like the present!

There’s loads to unpack with this, so as they say in Paw Patrol (I have a 3 year old), “Let’s dive in!”

1. You are a product of things both within and beyond your control. Think of it this way. Your genes may predispose you to be an amazing athlete or super smart, and your upbringing will provide the opportunities for these natural abilities to develop. But it ultimately comes down to your will to take action – and even that is shaped by your upbringing. Your will is a function of desire, determination, and discipline. If it was a simple matter of nature or nurture, we would have solved the world’s problems by now; but it’s not. It’s nature and nurture and this crazy concept of your own will.
2. People have intrinsic value. It’s taken us, as a species, a long time to get to the point where a good many of us consider all humans equal in value. Even then, we struggle with human trafficking, domestic abuse, and other issues related to this very issue of equality. While I’m not a fan of it, one way we acknowledge that intrinsic value of people in the workforce here in the US is a minimum wage. (I don’t like it because we shouldn’t need the government to tell us how to love our neighbor; but I like it because the pragmatic side of me realizes people aren’t so nice.)
3. Pay scales and the market rate for labor are inherently biased. C.S. Lewis spoke of the concept of fair in his radio series turned book Mere Christianity. He observed that when people speak of something being fair, it’s always in relation to some external set of rules or standard, whether they acknowledge it or not. The point being that the market rate for labor is not determined by some outside organization or person – that’s literally impossible. It can’t be fair, and using its existence as proof that it is fair (because that’s what the market can get away with) is asinine.

With that in mind, here’s how I define fair from the standpoint of pay. A fair pay scale/compensation system begins by acknowledging human intrinsic value and then adds to that in a structured, truly transparent process according to the hazards, responsibility, experience, skills, and education required for each job. (This is something I can help implement.)

Whether a CEO or a janitor, the person behind any job has the same families, same hopes and dreams, and same right to pursue happiness. The fact that we struggle to pay a living wage for millions of jobs is proof we don’t value people. Should a burger flipping job be able to get a single person by? Why not? A bunch of executives make hundreds of millions off of those burger flippers.