Weights and Measures

Newsletter September 4, 2023 Together, we're #keepingitsacred...

All across Los Angeles this summer, workers went on strike. Hotel workers, screen actors, script writers, UPS drivers, sanitation workers, lifeguards, and others took a stand against unfair labor practices. The cost of living has become much higher than the minimum wage, leaving folks with no choice but to strike.

I have spent countless hours at labor strikes over the year, and this summer felt different. It felt like a groundswell of workers were willing to take a stand this year.

People have been paying attention to two gaps:

1) the large gap that exists between what would be a living wage ($39.31/hr. in Los Angeles) and the minimum wage (for a worker at LAX that's $18.04/hr.); that's less than half the living wage. That is so low, that some employees have to live 2-3 hours outside of the city and away from their jobs just to make ends meet; and

2) the large gap that exists between the top paid worker and the lowest paid worker of many corporation (according to the Institute for Policy Studies, the worst case of this is how LIVE Nation's CEO, Michael Rapino took in $130M in 2022 while the median worker was paid just $25,673. That means he was paid 5,414 times more than his median worker.

Something is really wrong when your worker has to work over 5,414 years to earn what you earned in just one year. Think about how long that is and remember according to Jewish folklore, the world itself is only 5,783 years old! The system is really really broken.

There needs to be a conversation in the public square about what is fair for a CEO to make versus their median worker. Would we say that a CEO can make 10 times as much, or 20 times as much? Maybe. But over 5,000 times as much indicates a gross exploitation where workers are not enjoying the fruits of their labor fairly.

Leviticus 19:35 reminds us that we shall not sin in judgments of weights and measures and in capacities. The Italian Rabbi Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno, writing in the 1500s shared that this means that this wrongdoing is referring to wrongdoing with money.

How we use money, how we place value says a lot about our values. Especially when we apply great importance to some over others.

This is exactly what we have here. A lightening of the importance of the average worker, and a hefty sense of the importance of the work of the CEO. This throws everything off balance. Many people can't put food on the table and some have $50M homes.

Did you know that 81 people own half of the world's wealth? That's an infinitesimally small humber of people in charge of half of the world's wealth. So small, in fact, that all 81 of them could fit on ONE double decker bus.

So, how can we realign our values as a society? How can we honor the workers to ensure that people have a living wage? These are the questions we ask today.

This is how we are Keeping It Sacred.

Together, we're #keepingitsacred...

Rabbi Heather Miller

Founder, Keeping It Sacred

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Thanks for your interest, and thanks for #keepingitsacred...