📖 Biblical Definition
A day laborer is a worker hired for the day — paid at sundown, expected to feed his family on what he earned that day. Scripture commands honest treatment of him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning (Lev 19:13). Christ's parable of the laborers in the vineyard (Mt 20) makes the day laborer a teacher of grace.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
(Composite.) A worker hired and paid by the day; especially in agricultural or building work.
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LABORER, n. One who labors in a toilsome occupation, especially with the hands; a manual workman.
The day laborer's economic vulnerability is foundational in biblical ethics: he is paid daily because he depends on the day's wage to feed his family that night. Withholding it overnight is a sin against him (Lev 19:13; Deut 24:15).
📖 Key Scripture
Leviticus 19:13 — "The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning."
Deuteronomy 24:15 — "At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it."
Matthew 20:1 — "For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard."
James 5:4 — "Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern wage-systems hide the day laborer from middle-class view; Scripture refuses the hiding and demands honest, prompt payment.
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James 5:4 is one of the New Testament's sharpest economic verses: the hire of the labourers... which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth. The wages cry out; the Lord of hosts hears. Withheld pay is not a bookkeeping issue; it is a sin with a voice.
Christ's vineyard parable in Matthew 20 turns day-laborer economics into a parable of grace: the householder pays the eleventh-hour worker the same as the all-day worker. The first murmur; the householder rebukes them. The kingdom is generous, not transactional.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek misthios and ergatēs name the hired worker.
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Greek misthios — hired servant, day laborer.
Greek ergatēs — worker, laborer; the ‘laborer’ of Mt 20:1 and Mt 9:37.
Usage
"Pay your laborer the day's wage by sundown."
"Withheld pay has a voice; the Lord of hosts hears."
"The kingdom is generous, not transactional."