Religions and the living wage

This paper argues that global economic justice can best be advanced by religious leaders, beginning with Pope Francis, advocating for a living wage. The idea of a living wage—that every full-time worker should be paid enough to support a family—grows from deep roots in biblical, Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Protestant thought. Those roots developed through the work of Catholic thinkers, especially Pope Leo XIII and John A. Ryan, who was a doctoral student under Richard T. Ely, an Episcopalian. Today, such diverse scholars as Amartya Sen, Ramzi Mabsout, and Martha Nussbaum offer new supports to the call for a living wage. Building on the capabilities approach to development advanced by Sen and Nussbaum, the paper contends that a living wage fosters capabilities. Building on Mabsout’s concept of “ethical realism”, this paper presents religious traditions as the means whereby one special capability—the intuitive grasp of justice that Mabsout sees as crucial—can be fostered. Informed by the religious history presented here, readers of this paper should see why ethical realism demands that the standard of a living wage be met. In recent decades, increasing inequality has led to coalitions of religious activists seeking a living wage. To make such coalitions effective, the paper will urge that Pope Francis and other religious leaders lead boycotts and seek political actions on behalf of a global living wage.