17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 18 For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”
I'm not sure if this is a good passage to be discussing Albert Pujols with, since we weren't dealing with church leaders, but it's the go-to verse in my mind for fair wages.
Pujols is the best all-around hitter in baseball (the Tigers' Miguel Carbrera is a close second, but second nonetheless) and a devout Christian to boot; he just signed one of the largest contracts in baseball history, a 10-year, $250 deal with the Anaheim Angels. Is he doing the Kingdom of God a disservice by accepting that big of a contract and disappointing his fans in St. Louis?
Were he solely in it for the moolah, he'd have likely taken the Miami offer, for a state with zero income tax looks good to a one-percenter; going out to California, where a cash-strapped state government is looking to raise taxes, isn't a good choice for maximizing cash flow. Also, Pujols would have to deal with the profane and mercurial Ozzie Guillen as a boss in Miami, which might prove more taxing than Jerry Brown.
Had Pujols offer to play for a tenth as much, making a "modest" couple of million a year, where would the other $20m go? Into the owner's pocket and partly into Uncle Sam's pocket, for if the owner is less charitable than Pujols, the owner will pay more taxes than Pujols would on a like amount of marginal income.
Pujols has an charity looking after Downs Syndrome kids; that and other charities are likely to get the lion's share of that salery. He can probably do more good with it than the Angel ownership.
People are generally worth their wages; what the person does with those wages is between him and God, but the wage is usually what the market feels is a fair price for the worker's services. Playing Monday-morning QB with salaries is more an exercise in envy than in seeking fairness.
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