L'Taken Participants Urge Congress to Raise the Minimum Wage

January 8, 2016Tyler Dratch

Earlier this month, Reform Jewish high school students from around the country came to the nation’s capital for the first Bernard and Audre Rapaport L’Taken Social Justice Seminar of the 2015-2016 season. Rose Gibney, Alanna Cotton and Josh Taranow from Temple Beth Jacob in Concord, NH, met with the office of Senator Kelly Ayotte to ask that the Senator co-sponsor the Raise the Wage Act (HR 2150/ S.1150). This legislation would increase the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour. The following is an excerpt from their speech discussing the Jewish imperative the minimum wage and one student’s personal connection to the legislation:

Being an American Jew, I know that our Jewish texts further enforce our views on the minimum wage and its effects. Maimonides, a revered Jewish sage from the 12th century constructed the “ladder of Tzedakah,” a model for the quality of a charitable action. According to Maimonides, the most charitable action is the concept of giving something that will help the receiver provide for himself or herself and to not be in need of any future charity. Raising the minimum wage would do just that. Our Jewish values say that we have the responsibility to take care of the vulnerable and help those who are in need. The Talmud states “One who withholds an employee’s wages is as though he deprived him of his life.” (Baba Metzia 112a). Paying below a livable wage is equivalent to withholding a wage because he is then deprived of the necessities to live.

 I remember the day my father came home and acted as though everything was alright, but that day turned into two weeks where everything was “great.” Then the news came, my father had gotten laid off from his full-time job of thirty years. At sixty years old, my father was forced to partially retire and find any source of income for our family. My mother is now the primary breadwinner, working four jobs to keep us afloat. My father is a part-time worker making just over minimum wage, yet not enough to help as much as he wishes. I am a part-time worker of two jobs, both paying me $7.50/hr. I am a 17 year-old girl, a full-time student, and a job holder of two jobs to help my family pay for the necessities. One thing I always remember my father saying to me was “Alanna, can I borrow some money to pay for groceries?” I had $20 and that was what we used to purchase dinner that night. We ate hot dogs for about two weeks every night, because that was all we could afford.

I am not looking to get that $12/hr just for me; I am looking for that raise in the minimum wages to help those single parents feed that family of three. When that seven year-old turns sixteen and her mother cannot take care of her anymore, she will feel the burden, as I have, to get a job to help her family pay for bills while also being a successful student. It is heartbreaking to hear that your parent cannot provide for the family, but being in that position as a parent is just unfair. This raise in minimum wage is for everyone, to help benefit them, along with the economy. “

The Raise the Wage Act will ensure that all people that work are paid fair wages. Full time workers should not live below the poverty line. Urge your Member of Congress to co-sponsor the Raise the Wage Act!

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