Hobby Lobby CEO David Green is committed to trying to run his business the way Jesus might have.
After a massive victory for religious freedom at the Supreme Court on Monday, Christian-owned arts and crafts giant Hobby Lobby has announced that its minimum wage for full-time hourly workers will be raised to $14.50 per hour.
Effective immediately, the announcement also entails that part-time hourly workers receive $9.50 per hour.
Given the track record of Green’s retail chain, the wage increase is not incredibly dramatic. In 2012, the retailer was already paying full-time employees $13 per hour while part-timers earned $9.
The national minimum wage is $7.25.
Such an announcement sends a clear message to progressives: allow people to handle their own money, and they will invest it in ways no government bureaucrat could have planned.
But for Green, it is doubtful that this is all a political move. Green told Forbes that the entire $3 billion company belongs to God.
“If you have anything or if I have anything, it’s because it’s been given to us by our Creator,” Green told the magazine.
That is the same reason he refuses to take the retail chain public; doing so, he says, would strip him of his ability to faithfully steward God’s resources and place it all in the hands of stockholders.
With that kind of walk to match his talk, it is little wonder that Forbes also called Green the “largest evangelical benefactor in the world,” supporting organizations such as Every Home for Christ, Oral Roberts University, and Wycliffe International.
Hobby Lobby teaches a lesson to all Christians, not just business owners. Standing your ground on biblical principles is more important, but it is equally important is letting “your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
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