What Does The Scripture Say About The Largest Line In Your Budget?

 One of my favorite things to do when I read scripture, is to find financial principles in the Word of God, and think about how it applies to how we lead our organizations.

I want to share a scripture about your budget's most expensive line item. What do you think that could be? What's the largest line item on your budget? 

If you guessed salary and staffing, you are correct! Isn’t it cool to know Scripture speaks about it?? Found in 1 Timothy 5:18 (AMP):

For the Scripture says, "You shall not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain [to keep it from eating]," and, "The worker is worthy of his wages [he deserves fair compensation]."

The example in this scripture was common to the type of work the people did.  Picture it – an ox in the field that is supposed to be working but stops to eat.  This instruction is counter intuitive because it says when an ox is working-  it is not to be muzzled so that it can eat while it's working. 

How does this apply to you? You're not to keep someone from eating while doing their work, meaning that the pay you give them should allow them to have a prosperous and productive life - to eat and sustain themselves. 

 The scripture also says that the worker is worthy of his wage. What does that mean? It means he deserves fair compensation. 

I hope your nonprofit has established a solid system for paying the people within your organization. The wisdom is that you start with a pay scale, a comparative study that outlines; 

1. Pay for someone in like positions within your organization.
2. Is based on your region/area. 
3. Is based on research in your industry/ministry type. 
4. Is based on your size of organization – by revenue or attendance/people served. 

Using that information, you set a compensation scale. Which typically looks like minimum and maximum, and a median pay amount for each type of position.  

Now, use that pay scale when hiring people – this is considered your compensation philosophy. Do we hire people at the minimum? Do we hire them at the maximum and only give pay increases when the pay scale adjusts higher based on market research? Do we hire them at that median and adjust based on experience or years of doing that kind of work?

If you don't have a compensation scale in place for your organization, or if you determine new hire’s salary by looking at existing people's salaries -  I want to invite you to go a step further. 

Use a pay scale to make sure that the worker is paid a worthy wage!

You can do this work on your own, or if you need a referral for this work, don't hesitate to reach out to me. 

1 Timothy 5:18 is a very important scriptural mandate that we should trust. We should not keep our people from eating, and we should not keep ourselves from giving them the worthy wage.