Ancient day laborers had no rights and little security, as uninsured workers without a safety net. Jesus tells a parable of an employer hiring workers in the morning (Matthew 20:1-16) and hiring more later in the day, paying everyone the same day's wages, a generous desire to relieve the hardship of the poor. "no one has hired us" indicates that they wanted to work. The payment was according to need and not according to what was earned or deserved with obvious application to charitable giving. We will all receive eternal life, the late-comer the same as the long-time Christian. In any church, when a relative new-comer is promoted over a long-time Christian we get jealous, when we need to learn generosity towards late-comers. "The parable is thus about the goodness... the mercy... of God... The Good (or Generous) Employer".
Ref: Hagner, D. A. (2002). Vol. 33B: Word Biblical Commentary : Matthew 14-28. Word Biblical Commentary (572). Dallas: Word, Incorporated.
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