Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

intensive primary sector of agricultural and mining production, the secondary sector of handicraft
and industrial manufacture, and the tertiary sector of services is obviously disrupted, so
that the tensions „between agriculture on the one hand and industry and the services on the
other“ are becoming problematic in an increasing number of states (Mater et magistra, 48),
which also has consequences for wage policy. Agriculture and mining are very laborintensive.
Productivity can increase in handicraft and industry faster than in other economic
sectors, which renders it easier, particularly in periods of full-employment, to offer wage and
salary increases, which, of course, does not remain without effect for agriculture, mining, and
service industries. The advanced industrial society is more and more tending towards „a leveling-off
of the affluent society“ in which all strata of the population are striving for an „even“
living standard. The responsible parties must therefore consider together whether and to what
extent wage increases are possible without harmful effects on price levels and how a disadvantage
for other branches of the economy with less advanced productivity and higher labor
costs can be avoided. The encyclical Quadragesimo anno rightly demands that wage determination
do justice to „the public economic good“; it is an offence against social justice when
„without regard for the common good, wages and salaries are excessively lowered or
raised“(n. 74).
In the Federal Republic of Germany, which, like numerous other industrial countries of the
Western world, professes autonomy in negotiating wage rates to a large extent, the obligation
just mentioned binding first of all upon the social partners who must consider in their wage
policy the effects on the level of employment (the danger of unemployment), on investments,
and on the price structure (endangering the stability of the value of money). From this point of
view, the strike, which is accepted by Christian social teaching as morally permissible in principle
when used as the last resort in a labor dispute, should be considered as contrary to the
system and out of date. The wage problems existing between the three sectors of the modern
economic society suggest, rather, that recourse be had to a widely misunderstood teaching of
the encyclical Quadragesimo anno, which also finds a resonance in Mater et magistra. These
encyclicals recommend the creation of „various intermediary bodies“ which are „really
autonomous“ (Mater et magistra, 65), in which the main emphasis must lie on the „common“
interests, the „most important“ of which is to co-operate „for the sake of the common good of
the country“ (Quadragesimo anno, 85). The salary level, the wage-price spiral, differing productivity
rates, different labor costs, and so on are matters first of all for those immediately
concerned; there is no necessity of thinking immediately of legal measures by the state.
d) The Just Family Wage
The level of wages depends fourthly on what portion of the national income is earmarked for
‘social security’. In this connection, the question about a just family wage plays a great role.
One could raise the demand that the fixed wage must be generally so high that it suffice for
the maintenance of a healthy family, i.e., one with many children. Pope Leo XIII did in fact
demand a wage in the encyclical Rerum novarum that would be able to maintain“ the worker
as well as „his wife and his children“ (n. 47). In the marriage encyclical Casti connubii (December
3l, l930), Pius XI took up this thought and demanded that „such economic and social
methods should be adopted as will enable every head of a family to earn as much as, according
to his station in life, is necessary for himself, his wife, and for the rearing of his children“
(n. ll7). Finally, it says in Quadragesimo anno (l93l) that every effort must be made to ensure
that the worker „be paid a wage sufficient to support him and of his family,“ and that a salary
of this level must be guaranteed for „every adult workingman.“ That, because of the father’s
insufficient wage, mothers should have to neglect „ their proper cares and duties, especially
the training of children“ in order „to engage in gainful occupations outside the home“ is „ an
intolerable abuse“(n. 7l).
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