US Catholic leaders call for decent work and just wages
(Vatican Radio) Catholic leaders in the US are urging the Senate to advance policies
that promote decent work and just wages. The call was made in a recent letter written
by 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.
They state that the current federal minimum wage is not a just
wage and that workers’ wages must allow them to form and support families.
Lydia
O’Kane spoke to Archbishop Wenski about the effect low wages and a lack of jobs is
having on family life. He says, you can imagine if someone has to work several jobs
in order to make ends meet they have less time available for the task of parenting
and for the necessary social interaction between spouses and their children.”
The
letter also recalls the words of Pope Francis from last September, saying it is necessary
“to remove centrality from the law of profit and gain, and to put the person and the
common good back at the centre” of economic life. Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s interview
with Archbishop Wenski