Chances today we're going to hear a lot of sermons and discussions trying to soften the blow of today's Gospel for Mass (Mt. 20.1-16). For those not familiar, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a farm manager going out to the local employment office at varying parts of the day (early, midday, late, last hour) trying to get all the work done, then paying everyone the same amount (doubtless enraging workers' rights advocates), and handling the grumbling from those who thought they should have gotten more because they were at it longer. The manager tells them, "Hey, it's the contracted rate and that's how it turns out."
Not exactly how I'd handle hiring, but that's not the point.
Over the history of the Church we have seen interpretations ranging from Dispensationalist (each time of hiring represents a time period of history...yes, that's a stretch), to when in life one answers the call to join the Kingdom of God (which has admittedly more traction). The most resonant of these explanations all agree on a couple of things:
Pride has zero place in the matter.
The generosity is the same across the board, everyone gets an equal share of the Master's grace and favour.
Now, let's move from general HR considerations (about which this parable is NOT concerned) and look at it from the point of God's grace. God's "payment," if you will put it that way, is eternal life in His presence through the power of His Holy Spirit. Something tells me that NONE of us will be able to spend that equal payment throughout all of eternity. Heaven isn't a static, vague, blissful, and somewhat boring place. Eternity with God is constant exploration, growth, development, and the deepening of wisdom, of knowledge, of everything good beyond our imagining. Since God is infinite, and a share of infinite is still infinite, then no one gets stiffed on wages, really. Those who feel "stiffed" are simply not getting the whole picture and will be the last to realize just how good the offer is.
Indeed, the first will be last and the last first, especially if the first miss the point.
Illumination from the Codex Aureus Eptanercensis, 11th Century, Ecbternach, Luxembourg