Posted by David Morrill Schlitt , Legislative Assistant

“Should an employer be allowed to pay a full-time employee $5.15 an hour, this argument went, if that's no longer enough to live on? Is it just under our system of government? Or in the eyes of God?” –New York Times Magazine, January 15, 2006.

This past week the New York Times Magazine ran a very important article on Living Wage campaigns around the country. The Reform Movement has long made the argument that economic decisions must be treated as moral decisions," and, as the Times Magazine article suggests, many other Americans are coming around to similar conclusions: “The Baltimore [Living Wage] campaign was ostensibly about money,” writes reporter Jon Gertner. “But to those who thought about it more deeply, it was about the force of particular moral propositions: first, that work should be rewarded, and second, that no one who works full time should have to live in poverty.”

Let Justice Roll, an interfaith coalition of made up of more than fifty community and religious groups (including the Union for Reform Judaism), is currently working to raise the minimum wage both federally and on the state level. Last weekend, Let Justice Roll held its “Living Wage Days” to coincide with the celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in order to recall Dr. King’s efforts on behalf of workers. As King wrote in Where Do We Go from Here, “There is nothing but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every American citizen, whether he is a hospital worker, laundry worker, maid, or day laborer.” To find out more about Let Justice Roll and how you can get involved, please visit their website.