"Raise the Federal Minimum Wage" Resolution Adopted at National Jewish Communal Affairs Gathering in Atlanta
Graphic from website of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs
(March 17, 2014) New York -- The Jewish Labor Committee is pleased to report that a resolution we cosponsored in support of Increasing the Federal Minimum Wage to $10.10, as well as raising the wage of tipped workers, was passed by an overwhelming majority of 250 delegates, from 60 groups across the United States, at the annual conference of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, meeting one week ago in Atlanta, GA.
Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Jewish Labor Committee, noted that passage of the resolution on raising the Federal minimum wage is part of a broader campaign that must be waged community by community, and across the United States.
"The Torah provides the moral imperative: `Justice, justice shall you pursue.' In practical terms, that means that we should support a just minimum wage - a wage that will enable working people to support themselves and survive in our society. And we must partner with others to ensure it happens.
"We in the Jewish Labor Committee are proud to be part of this campaign, whether federally or in New Jersey or Washington DC or Massachusetts , or Los Angeles. Raising the minimum wage is crucial to reversing the massive income inequality in the United States. We encourage the wider community to join us in this struggle. It's the right and just thing to do."
Additional resolutions passed at the recent JCPA gathering, sponsored by or otherwise supported by the Jewish Labor Committee, concerned Government Support for Public Higher Education, Combating Human Trafficking, European Anti-Semitism, Reproductive Health, Inclusion and Disabilities, and International LGBT Discrimination.
The Jewish Council for Public Affairs encompasses a network of 15 national and 125 local independent Jewish community relations agencies. The Jewish Labor Committee is a founding member of the JCPA.