A Question of Labor

In years past, one was allowed to approach a company and offer their unpaid service in order to get experience in a certain area, and possibly to gain an advantage in a future application for employment at said company. One was also allowed to work at whatever age. Now, there are certain laws (such as child labor laws) which restrict these practices. These laws (of course) come from good intentions. However, they have mutated into something they should not be.
A few years ago, Faith Community Church would hire unpaid Interns for the Summer Children’s Ministry. The interns would arrive at the church at 9:00 a.m. and occasionally leave at 11:00 p.m. Their daily schedule would consist of two five day clubs (one in the morning, one in the afternoon), followed by decorating for Vacation Bible School (which could easily take up most of the evening). While this seems to be a case of a church taking unfair advantages of well-meaning college students, it is not. The desire of the interns was to work, and (in fact) they had to be forced to stop earlier than they desired by the church Elders. If they had not been stopped, the interns would’ve stayed well into the next day, working tirelessly.  Additionally, Faith Community would take a love offering from its congregation at the end of the summer, the sum of which greatly surpassed the salary the interns would have made if they had been paid minimum wage.
Presently, the Church is forced to pay its interns at minimum wage, as the interns are to be treated like “actual employees.” Because of this, the Church cannot hire as many interns as it once could, and the interns that are hired are forced to work less than before (8 hours a day) because “surely more time working would be inhumane.” Another result of companies being forced to pay minimum wage at the very least is the firing of employees who are not worth minimum wage, such as handicapped employees or the elderly. The inexperienced, too, are absolutely  unconsidered for most jobs, and college graduates with obscure degrees are forced to go into a profession which does not relate to their chosen Major.
The Government also insists on continuously raising the minimum wage, despite the obvious inverse proportion between its increase and the number of the unemployed. To illustrate this point, if a company had ten employees which it was paying at minimum wage (eight dollars per hour) and minimum wage was raised to ten dollars per hour, the company would be forced not only to lay off two employees to make up for the difference, but it would also be forced to make the remaining employees work harder.
To play the Devil’s advocate, isn’t forcing children to work indecent? Shouldn’t interns be rewarded for their efforts? After all, not all companies can take “love offerings.” Granted, it is unlawful to force children to work, but child labor laws apply until one is eighteen years of age. Childhood does not last until the age of thirteen, much less seventeen! While there are certain processes for working under the age of eighteen, these work permit laws cripple young adults who are not enrolled in a school (as a Work Permit is to be obtained through one’s educational institution), and drastically cut the income of families whose children work after school, or even on weekends. Regarding the second question involving interns, these volunteers are rewarded by gaining experience! This experience helps to ensure a more stable income in the future. There is no need to pay interns when they will be rewarded heartily in the future, especially as this lowers the amount of interns.
There are few things that can be done in this situation. The most powerful thing which may be done is to pray. In fact, Christians are commanded to “pray for all who are in authority, that [we] might have a calm and peaceable life.” (I Timothy 2:2) Other than this (which is by far the most important action), the youth can confront the lawgivers. We must reason with our local authorities. We can take the issue to those in power. However, we must not forget to do this in love. We are not to speak harshly, and we are not to vainly argue. This does not mean that we cannot have an impact. The youth must speak. We can ask others to join us in our labors; we can petition; we can present our views; we can change their minds. Although our government has devolved horribly, it still honors (however vaguely) the right of free speech. All we have to do is to be pointed in our goal; we cannot be complacent, or our battle will be lost before it has commenced.
One of the more important things for the young men and women of America to do is to act respectably. If we wish our view to be seriously considered, we must show that we should be taken seriously. Those in power would not (and indeed should not) consider the arguments of delinquents. Why listen to the desires of hooligans; why reason with one who stirs up trouble? We mustn’t act foolishly if we want to be treated like the adults that we must one day become. We cannot assume that with the gaining of height comes the gaining of maturity. We must strive to be sober-minded in our actions, and thus be good ambassadors for Christ; for the World watches us to see whether they may blaspheme the name of God (Romans 2:24). They will not respect the One we call Master if we act like heathens, and they will not heed the opinion of fools.