(Vatican Radio) the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has called for an
increase in the federal minimum wage. Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, chairman
of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Father
Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, have written an open letter calling
on the US Senate to advance policies that promote decent work and just wages. Archbishop
Wenski and Fr. Snyder say that the current federal minimum wage does not provide sufficient
resources for individuals to form and support families, and conclude that the current
wage does not meet the standards for just compensation set out in the Catechism of
the Catholic Church. Below, please find the full text of the letter:
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United
States Senate Washington, DC 20515 Dear Senator: On behalf of the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Charities USA, we write to express
our concern with the ongoing decent jobs crisis as well as the resulting inequality
in our communities and country. We urge you to consider closely any legislation that
begins to heal our broken economy by promoting decent work and ensuring fair and just
compensation for all workers. We write not as economists or labor market experts,
but rather as pastors and teachers who every day, in our ministries and churches,
see the pain and struggles caused by an economy that simply does not produce enough
jobs with just wages. So many of our families find it increasingly difficult to afford
basic needs, forcing some to take multiple jobs or, in desperation, even seek out
predatory loans. Human work has inherent dignity, and just wages honor that dignity.
Blessed John Paul II called human work “probably the essential key, to the whole social
question” (Laborem Exercens, no. 20). We will not speak to the specifics of policies,
but can draw from our teaching to offer principles to build a just economy and advance
the common good. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “a just wage is the
legitimate fruit of work. . . . [It] should guarantee man the opportunity to provide
a dignified livelihood for himself and his family on the material, social, cultural,
and spiritual level” (no. 2434). Just wages allow us to develop more fully as individuals,
families, neighborhoods, communities, parishes, and even society as a whole. The
current federal minimum wage falls short of this standard for its failure to provide
sufficient resources for individuals to form and support families. A full-year, full-time
worker making the minimum wage does not make enough money to raise a child free from
poverty. Because the minimum wage is a static number and does not change, each year
it becomes more difficult for workers making the minimum wage to survive. Additionally,
while some minimum wage workers are teenagers, research suggests as much as 25 percent
of workers who would benefit from a minimum wage increase are parents. Workers deserve
a just wage that allows them to live in dignity, form and support families, and contribute
to the common good. Pope Francis recently noted, “it is therefore necessary to
remove centrality from the law of profit and gain, and to put the person and the common
good back at the centre. One very important factor for the dignity of the person is,
precisely, work; work must be guaranteed if there is to be an authentic promotion
of the person. This task is incumbent on the society as a whole.” We must return the
human person to the center of economic life; one way Congress can do that is by ensuring
workers receive just wages.