Let Justice Roll

Making the minimum wage a moral and religious issue

By Douglas Todd
The Vancouver Sun (Canada), 9/23/06

A federal report that revealed Greater Vancouver has the highest proportion of working poor in the country stunned many people earlier this month.

In response, economists of various stripes were trotted out to air their often-conflicting theories on the crisis. Canada's spiritual leaders, however, were largely silent. At least in public, they had little to say about the no-win squeeze crushing more than 10 per cent of British Columbia's dedicated workers and their families (almost double the national average.)

But that's definitely not the case in the United States, where interfaith coalitions are leading a much-discussed campaign to raise that country's minimum wage -- in the name of religion and basic human morality.

The U.S. spiritual leaders are reminding people what Rev. Martin Luther King was actually talking about on the night in 1968 before he was assassinated. In his famous "I've been to the mountaintop" speech, he pleaded for Memphis's long-suffering sanitation workers to be given a living wage.

Many Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist leaders believe religious people can't sit on the sidelines while debate simmers over the gut-wrenching working poor (which includes 73,000 Greater Vancouverites who work just as long every week as anyone else, but can't break through the poverty ceiling.)

In a country like Canada that has a booming economy, and a place like Vancouver that many say is turning into an "executive city" in advance of the 2010 Olympics, it may give Canadian politicians pause if they realized U.S. religious institutions have successfully turned low wages into a make-or-break campaign issue in November's congressional elections.

The U.S. spiritual leaders don't ignore utilitarian arguments: They cite data that show how decent wages, benefits, subsidized housing and tax breaks for low-income earners are the way to strengthen not only families and communities, but entire economies. But what's different about their approach is they're also using ethical language; raising ideals such as "human dignity," "the Golden Rule" and the Biblical teaching, "To those whom much has been given, much is expected."

A particular push in the U.S. is to raise the $5.15-an-hour federal minimum wage by $2. Even though Canadian legislators' response to the working poor may need to be more multi-faceted, it's revealing to hear how the influential U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops supports the minimum-wage hike: "Work is more than just a job; it is a reflection of our human dignity, and a way to contribute to the common good. Most importantly, it is the ordinary way people meet their material needs and community obligations."

The National Council of Churches, meanwhile, is engaged in a concerted "Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign." It's teaching tens of thousands of affiliated churches how to devote some of their October worship services to ensuring reasonable wages for all.

In support, Jewish groups in the U.S. are quoting the great Jewish philosopher, Maimonides, who said, "The most meritorious degree of charity is to anticipate charity by preventing poverty."

To appeal to secular economists, the Living Wage movement also reminds anyone willing to listen that the so-called father of capitalism, Adam Smith, wrote in his classic 1776 book, The Wealth of Nations: "It is but equity ... that they who feed, clothe and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged."

The Living Wage movement has already won ballot initiatives in six states in advance of November's elections. A poll by the respected Pew Research Center showed an overwhelming 83 per of Americans approve of the $2 hike.

The Wall Street Journal recently said Democrats and Republicans are taking contrasting approaches to galvanizing their different religious supporters in advance of November's mid-term elections.

Republicans are appealing to conservative faithful by again launching ballot initiatives to make same-sex marriage illegal in key states, the business newspaper said, while Democrats are showing they are not deaf to religious people's concerns by backing living-wage campaigns.

In Canada, the debate over a living wage is not yet on most people's lips. Meanwhile, Canadian economists who care about the dead-end future of the working poor believe a multi-pronged response is necessary -- involving not only a solid minimum wage, but more subsidized housing (especially in Greater Vancouver), guaranteed child care, more access to training programs and tax breaks for those earning low incomes.

Whatever solutions may be needed to make crummy jobs into livable jobs, Canadians who think of themselves as spiritual can hardly be neutral about the challenge. They might heed the words of King: "There is nothing but a lack of social vision from preventing us to pay an adequate wage to every [human being], whether he is a hospital worker, laundry worker, maid or day labourer."

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