Dict: smith - WAGES

smith:

WAGES - W>@ - The earliest mention of wages is of a recompense, not in money, but in kind, to Jacob from Laban. kjv@Genesis:29:15 kjv@Genesis:29:20 kjv@Genesis:30:28 kjv@Genesis:31:7 -8,41) In Egypt money payments by way of wages were in use, but the terms cannot now be ascertained. kjv@Exodus:2:9) The only mention of the rate of wages in Scripture is found in the parable of the householder and the vineyard, kjv@Matthew:20:2) where the laborer’s wages was set at one denarius per day, probably 15 to 17 cents, a sum which may be fairly taken as equivalent to the denarius, and to the usual pay of a soldier (ten asses per diem) in the later days of the Roman republic. Tac. Ann. kjv@1:17; Polyb. kjv@6:39. In earlier times it is probable that the rate was lower; but it is likely that laborers, and also soldiers, were supplied with provisions. The law was very strict in requiring daily payment of wages. kjv@Leviticus:19:13 kjv@Leviticus:24:14-15) The employer who refused to give his-laborers sufficient victuals is censured kjv@Job:22:11) and the iniquity of withholding wages is denounced. kjv@Jeremiah:22:13; kjv@Malachi:3:5; kjv@James:6:4)