| A new report confirms something we all knew -- Americans don't just need jobs, they need good jobs, jobs that pay a living wage. Despite the uptick in employment in today's report from the US Department of Labor, the truth is that having a job isn't the same thing as having economic security. Or, as the New York Times put it yesterday: Many of the jobs being added in retail, hospitality and home health care, to name a few categories, are unlikely to pay enough for workers to cover the cost of fundamentals like housing, utilities, food, health care, transportation and, in the case of working parents, child care.
But there are subtle shifts at play, and a social justice movement committed to helping those workers struggling the most. Here in New York, it's been seven months since the signing of the precedent-setting Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. And the movement is growing. On the West Coast, our allies at the Progressive Jewish Alliance have been standing up for hotel workers for years (pictured below). .jpg) For a Jewish ethics perspective on hotel workers specificially, The Jewish Week has a piece this week from Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz. An excerpt: Spending money on a product is a vote for its producer, and one of the greatest influences we have on society is through our decisions about where to spend our money. How – besides the location, price, and accommodations – should we choose a hotel? Hotel workers very often work long days, for less than the minimum wage (let alone a living wage). These workers need protections to ensure that we follow the Torah on Peulat Sakhir (a worker’s rightful wage) and Oshek (the oppression of workers).
Let's hope that the next report will show a rise in jobs that pay a living wage. |
