Manifesto CoreEconomy, Property, Finance and Work
Work
Work has dignity but is not the purpose of human existence. Economic progress should increase security, leisure and command over one's own life.
Policy catalogueEconomy, Property, Finance and Work
Agreed PolicyMinimum Wage and the Just Wage
Every worker is entitled to a just wage sufficient for a dignified life and the reasonable support of a family.
Position
Catholic social teaching sets a substantive just-wage standard rather than one universal statutory mechanism. Restore Europe therefore favours sectoral and regional wage-setting through representative institutions, backed by statutory protection where necessary.
Policy
- Establish the principle of a legally protected just wage.
- Normally determine wage floors at the appropriate sectoral or regional level through workers, employers and vocational bodies.
- Permit guilds, chambers and collective institutions to negotiate standards appropriate to productivity, skills and sector conditions.
- Allow statutory minimum protection where bargaining institutions fail to secure a just wage.
- Take family needs into account rather than treating individual subsistence as the sole standard.
- Use family allowances or child benefits where appropriate so that raising children does not create an unreasonable economic penalty.
- Consider enterprise viability, productivity and employment opportunities.
Implementation note
Implementation note
The Catechism describes a just wage as the legitimate fruit of work and says fair pay must consider needs, contributions, productivity, the condition of the business and the common good. Laborem Exercens explicitly connects just remuneration to the ability to establish and maintain a family.
Manifesto basis
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Related positions
- Manifesto CoreEconomy, Property, Finance and Work
Guilds, Chambers and Corporatist Representation
Workers, employers, craftsmen, farmers and professions should participate in sectoral institutions setting standards, apprenticeships and labour conditions.
- Agreed PolicyEconomy, Property, Finance and Work
Trade Unions, Guilds and Vocational Representation
Workers may organize independently, while labour relations should move toward a corporatist system of permanent sectoral institutions representing workers, employers and professions.
- DerivedEconomy, Property, Finance and Work
Taxation
Taxation is legitimate for the common good but should be fair, family-sensitive, non-confiscatory and compatible with broad ownership, productive work and subsidiarity.
Every question in this catalogue carries a position. Entries marked Derived follow the direction of the manifesto without their implementation being fixed, and several name the legal or treaty change they would require. Positions are revised as the movement decides; the version and date above say which text you are reading.