What should Christians think about SQ 832?

Most discussions focus on wages, inflation, labor costs, and economics. Those are important questions. But Christians should begin somewhere deeper.

We should begin with what Scripture teaches about human beings.

From the opening pages of Genesis, we learn that men and women are made in the image of God. Before sin entered the world, before the Fall, before any curse was pronounced, Adam was given work to do. God placed him in the garden to cultivate it, steward it, and exercise dominion over creation.

Work was not the result of the Fall. Work was part of God’s design.

Human beings were created to build, create, cultivate, solve problems, exercise responsibility, and bring order and flourishing to the world around them. We build businesses. We raise families. We grow food. We invent new products. We serve customers. We create value for others.

In all of these things, we reflect something of our Creator. That is why Christians understand that earning a living is an important part of work, but it is not the whole purpose of work.

Work is one of the primary ways human beings exercise responsibility, contribute to their communities, provide for their families, develop their gifts, and live out their God-given purpose.

Because of that, access to work is not merely an economic issue. It is a moral issue.

Supporters present SQ 832 as a compassionate policy designed to help workers receive more money. Christians should care deeply about families facing rising costs and economic pressure.

But Christians should also ask a deeper question: What happens when public policy makes work itself harder to access?

That question matters because work opportunities do not simply appear on their own. They are created.

Businesses large and small take risks, invest capital, create products and services, and provide jobs. They carry payroll, absorb uncertainty, and operate in competitive markets. They create opportunities for people to gain experience, develop skills, support their families, and contribute to society.

When government policies significantly increase the cost of employment, businesses respond: hours are reduced, hiring slows, positions disappear, and automation becomes a more attractive alternative to taking a chance on inexperienced workers. As a result, the very opportunities that help people gain a foothold in the workforce become increasingly scarce.

The burden does not fall evenly. It falls most heavily on those standing closest to the margins: young people seeking a first job, workers with limited skills, individuals rebuilding their lives, and those trying to gain a foothold in the workforce.

For many people, the first job is not primarily about the wage. It is about formation.

Work teaches responsibility. It teaches discipline. It teaches perseverance, communication, problem-solving, and stewardship. It forms habits that often shape the rest of a person’s life.

When access to work is reduced, people lose more than income. They lose opportunity, experience, and one of the primary ways human beings develop capability, confidence, and purpose. The loss is not merely economic; it is personal, social, and ultimately human.

That reality should matter deeply to Christians. Too often, policy debates focus only on intentions. But intentions alone are not enough.

Christians should never evaluate policy merely by whether it sounds compassionate in the moment. We must ask whether it actually helps people flourish over time. Anything less is to fall prey to the ideological ends of others.

Compassion that ignores consequences ceases to be compassion. It becomes sentimentalism masquerading as virtue.

A policy should not be judged solely by what it promises. It should also be judged by what it produces.

SQ 832 increases barriers to work, raises costs for families, and makes opportunities scarcer for many of the people it claims to help.

And that brings us back to the image of God.

Work is not an unfortunate necessity to be managed by the government. It is part of human dignity itself. Human beings were created for more than dependency. We were created to cultivate, to create, to build, and to serve. We were created to take responsibility, contribute to our communities, and exercise the gifts God has given us. We were created to work.

Christians should view SQ 832 not merely as a minimum-wage policy, but as a policy that creates barriers to work itself—and therefore barriers to one of the primary ways human beings bear God’s image through productive labor, responsibility, creativity, stewardship, and contribution to their communities.