Workers Have Been Devalued Since Long Before AI

People wonder how AI will affect workers.  Even without AI, we have failed to treat workers fairly.  Corporations and governments already have been devaluing humans in the workplace for centuries.  They are violating these principles, which are based in the Bible.

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Americans celebrate Labor Day every September.  But every day of the year, our economy and our financial and governmental leaders fail to adequately address the needs of American workers in direction violation of biblical principles.

Pope Leo XIV talked about workers in his first encyclical letter, which focuses on artificial intelligence.  (An encyclical letter is a letter meant to be circulated widely to address a major issue).  He entitled the letter Magnifica Humanitas – Latin for “Magnificent Humanity” – because humans are a magnificent creation of God, and AI needs to be used in ways that will respect the dignity of humans.  To underscore this point, Pope Leo subtitled his letter “On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.”

In his encyclical, Pope Leo XIV calls on us “to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted, and fraternity is made possible” (par. 1).  (By “fraternity,” he means a society where people work together for the common good of all.  Imagine of that was how our economy was structured....)

But we need to be honest about where we stand right now.  Our current economy does not protect workers or serve the common good as it should.

In 1891, Pope Leo XIII showed us how to think about technological revolutions

Throughout history, Christians have sought to apply biblical principles to the realities of their time.  An earlier pope, Pope Leo XIII, launched the Catholic Church’s modern effort to apply those principles.  Pope Leo XIII’s leadership in this area is one of the reasons why the current pope took the name Leo when he was elected.

Pope Leo XIII wrote an encyclical in 1891 entitled Rerum Novarum, in which he addressed the social issues associated with the first industrial revolution.  He identified the flaws in the economic relationships of his time and spelled out steps needed to honor human dignity, promote justice, and achieve the common good.

The economic relationships that prevail in our nation and world now, 135 years later, do not honor the principles Leo XIII identified.  Human dignity is often pursued only when it is convenient.  Justice is secured only haphazardly.  Little is done to encourage the disparate groups in our economy to work together for the common good.

Pope Leo XIV began his encyclical on AI by summarizing the principles identified by his namesake.  I would like to explore how the Bible undergirds these principles, because if we take the Bible and these principles seriously, we will be better prepared for the age of AI.

Pope Leo XIII denounced the dehumanizing treatment of workers 135 years ago, and the flaws remain

Pope Leo XIII identified a number of ways that the industrialized economy fails to adequately address the needs of workers.

Employers tend to hoard their wealth and not share it with their workers

In Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII observed that “working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition” (par. 3).

These words are tame compared to what James says in the New Testament:

“Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries....  [Y]our gold and silver have corroded, and that corrosion will be a testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like a fire....  Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.  You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure; you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter.  You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous one; he offers you no resistance” (James 5:1-6, NABRE).

James warns the rich who have stored up wealth while mistreating the righteous and failing to pay workers their fair wages.  Many workers face similar challenges today.  Too many employers grow rich while their hard-working employees receive little benefit and struggle to get by.

Both Jesus and Paul say that

“the laborer deserves his wages” (Luke 10:7; 1 Tim. 5:18, ESV).

To not give workers a fair share of the profits that come as a fruit of their labor is an offense against God.

Workers have a right to a wage sufficient to support them and their families

Leo XIII said that a worker’s wages should be “sufficient to enable him comfortably to support himself, his wife, and his children” (par. 46).

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament insist that workers should be paid in a timely manner and in fair proportion to the value of the work they have done:

“You shall not exploit your neighbor.  You shall not commit robbery.  You shall not withhold overnight the wages of your laborer” (Lev. 19:13, NABRE).

“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, / and his upper rooms by injustice, / who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing / and does not give him his wages” (Jer. 22:13, ESV).

“Listen!  The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts” (James 5:4, NRSV).

In the United States, the minimum wage has not been increased since 2009.  The wealth of the riches 0.1% has nearly quadrupled since 2009, while workers have seen absolutely no increase in the minimum wage, which now is far below the living wage needed to support a worker and his or her family.

Jesus tells a parable in which a landowner pays a denarius, the standard wage of that time, which was sufficient to cover the daily needs of a laborer and his family, even to workers who were not able to work for a full day:

“When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage” (Matt. 20:1-16).

Although economics is not the point of the parable, Jesus seems to take for granted that a godly landowner would not pay anyone less than the minimum they need to meet their basic needs; he would pay each worker a living wage if his wealth permitted him to do so.

Workers have a right to just treatment and must not be exploited by their bosses

Leo XIII said that it is “truly shameful and inhuman” when employers “misuse men as though they were things in the pursuit of gain” (par. 20) and that an employer’s “great and principal duty is to give everyone what is just” (par. 20).

From the Law of Moses to the last of the prophets, the Old Testament demands that employers treat their workers justly and avoid exploitation:

“You shall not exploit a poor and needy hired servant, whether one of your own kindred or one of the resident aliens who live in your land, within your gates.  On each day you shall pay the servant’s wages before the sun goes down, since the servant is poor and is counting on them.  Otherwise the servant will cry to the Lord against you, and you will be held guilty” (Deut. 24:14-15, NABRE).

“I will be swift to bear witness against . . . those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow, and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts” (Mal. 3:5, NRSV).

In the United States, workers often complain that their rights under U.S. labor law have been violated, that their wages have been withheld, that the overtime pay they earned has been denied them, and that immigrants are being exploited in the workplace.  Meanwhile, government agencies that were created to protect workers from mistreatment by their employers have been gutted, and little is done to ensure justice.

Workers have a right, as social beings, to join together with other workers in labor unions

Humans are, and were created to be, social beings.  We create social groupings, large and small.  Leo XIII called on governments to support the establishment of labor unions, saying, “to enter into a ‘society’ of this kind is the natural right of man; and the State has for its office to protect natural rights, not to destroy them” (par. 51).

The Bible is full of references to the importance of working with others, and not alone.  The book of Ecclesiastes is especially relevant:

“Two are better than one: They get a good wage for their toil.  If the one falls, the other will help the fallen one.  But woe to the solitary person!  If that one should fall, there is no other to help” (Eccl. 4:9-10, NABRE).

To prevent others from banding together is a violation of their human dignity.  God calls us to live in communion with others, and we have a God-given right to form associations with others.  Yet the U.S. government has mostly looked the other way as employers have harassed and retaliated against employees who were brave enough to try to exercise their rights under U.S. law, allowing employers to stonewall negotiations and sabotage the efforts of workers to join together to improve their treatment. 

Governments have a duty to provide for the welfare of their people, with a special concern for the needy and the poor

Leo XIII insisted that “the public administration must duly and solicitously provide for the welfare and the comfort of the working classes; otherwise, that law of justice will be violated which ordains that each man shall have his due” (par. 33).

Psalm 72 describes the actions of a just king, and the obligations of a king in those days are the duties of government in our time:

“O God, give your judgment to the king; / your justice to the king’s son; / That he may govern your people with justice, / your oppressed with right judgment” (Ps. 72:2, NABRE; 72:1-2 in other Bibles).

“For he rescues the poor when they cry out, / the oppressed who have no one to help.  / He shows pity to the needy and the poor” (Ps. 72:12-13, NABRE).

In recent years, our government has cut back on assistance to those most in need, even cutting funding for food assistance for children while expanding tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.  The priorities of Psalm 72 have been reversed.

We need to start treating workers as the Bible tells us to: with dignity, respect, and justice

People worry about what AI might do to our economy in the future.  The Bible tells us we are already missing the mark.  We already should have taken action to address the injustices spelled out in the Bible and by Pope Leo XIII, but instead we are moving away from the standards of justice.  We are failing to build an economy that supports the dignity of workers.

But it is not too late.  We can change course.

As a first step, Christians need to stop supporting leaders who protect billionaires and corporations when they fail to give struggling workers a living wage, fail to honor workers’ union rights, fail to treat their workers justly, and fail to share their wealth fairly with those who work so hard to help them get rich.  Christians should not be unquestioningly supporting those who profit by ignoring the biblical principles laid out by God.  Instead, they should be demanding that governments and corporations follow these principles.

If that happens, workers will know that they are truly valued, not just on Labor Day but every day, as the Bible tells us they should be.