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Minimum Wage

Posted by admin under Disposable Income, Getting By In Israel, Poverty in Israel, Social Justice, Solutions to Poverty, Unemployment, What can THEY do

Minimum Wage

I met with a (born in the USA) Israeli accountant this morning. Once we finished our official business we got into a discussion about, what else…., making a living in Israel.

IT DID NOT TAKE LONG until we got down to the bottom line. Yes, it is possible “to get by” in Israel but life is not very easy in Israel when you “just get by”. That is because getting by can mean not having enough food for the kids. Torn/worn shoes, not warm enough winter coats and the like.

By our calculation, today’s minimum wage of 20.70 Shekels an hour is way too low. A simple look at the cost to rent an apartment will demonstrate this. A typical unit can cost about 2500 shekels a month. That means that before tax,  although that would be minimal on minimum wage, a person would have to work 120 hours just to pay the rent. That’s 68% of ones income just for rent. A full work month is 178 hours.

The conclusion we cam to was that minimum wage needs to be at least 80 Shekels an hour to, or almost 4 times the current rate. Of course its very easy to demand this from business/government but obviously not a straight forward issue. Yes, there is still much room for improvement…

Is giving from the heart or from the mind?

Posted by admin under Disposable Income, Perspective, Self Improvement, Social Justice, Solutions to Poverty, Tzedakah, What can "I" do

Dennis Prager suggests a hypothetical case, which has been presented to
several thousand Jewish and non-Jewish high school students:

Two people with the same income and social standing were approached
by a poor man for assistance. The first man, hearing the needs of this poor
man’s family, is moved to tears. He digs deep into his pocket, pulls out a
$5 bill and presses it compassionately into the palm of the poor man.

The second man, somewhat in a hurry, hears enough of the man’s story
to get the picture, reaches into his pocket and pulls out some bills, knowing
that Judaism requires him to give a minimum amount and to help a
person according to his needs. He gives $100 to the man and rushes off.

• Which man did the better thing?

More questions and insights here.