JCRC Joins Call for Living Wage at Harvard
The JCRC, in cooperation with the Jewish Labor Committee and other partner organizations in the Jewish community issued the following release in support of the student demonstration at Harvard University.
Why The Jewish Community Supports the Living Wage at Harvard
In our community, a battle is being waged over dignity and fairness for workers. For three years, Harvard University employees and contract laborers have campaigned for a living wage – one that would enable them to live free from poverty. The workers and students involved in the campaign are asking the university to pay all its workers a minimum of $10.25/hour plus benefits, an amount based upon the City of Cambridge's 1999 Living Wage ordinance.
The organized Jewish community supports a living wage at Harvard, based on a very simple principle: full-time employment should pay enough to keep an employee and a child out of poverty with the protection of basic healthcare. Today, over 1,000 Harvard workers and contract laborers are paid wages as low as $6.50 per hour without benefits. At that wage a parent with one child falls well below the federal poverty line, forcing many to work at least 90-hour weeks to support themselves.
Lifting the salaries of the lowest-paid workers at Harvard would cost $10 million per year. Although the cost is certainly significant, we feel that it is reasonable for an institution with an endowment of over $19 billion. Last year, Harvard ran an operating surplus of $120 million. For Harvard, the $10 million annual cost would be a wise investment in the well-being of its employees.
Harvard maintains that it offers decent benefits to its workers, including free classes and museum passes. Yet, for employees working (in some cases) 90-hour weeks, these perks can not add up to much. The employees themselves, rather than university management, are in the best position to know their own needs and to determine which benefits will ultimately have the most impact on the quality of their lives.
For two years, living wage activists have met with Harvard administrators, sent letters, and held rallies. They have earned the support of numerous notables, including US Senator Edward Kennedy, Cambridge Mayor Anthony Galluccio, state representatives and city councilors from Cambridge and Somerville, and over 150 Harvard professors. Harvard, however, has been intransigent. Now, students at Harvard are involved in a prolonged a sit-in at the University's administration building, waiting for Harvard to negotiate a decent living wage.
In 2000, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a national voice for the organized Jewish community, voted to support living wages all across the country. Our immigrant history compels us to support the struggle of workers for dignity and justice. Our ethics call for all of us to participate in tikkun olam, the repair of the world, requiring us to work for the common good of all people. A living wage at Harvard is a modest beginning.
Geoffrey Lewis, President, JCRC
Avi Green, Regional Director, Jewish Labor Committee
Michael J. Brown, Director, Jewish Organizing Initiative
Sheila Decter, Executive Director, New England Region, American Jewish Congress
Rabbi Ronne Friedman
Rabbi Toba Spitzer
Rabbi Barbara Penzner
Rabbi Thomas Alpert
Rabbi Sue Fendrick
