Labor Issues Source Sheet

If one hires a worker to work with him/her with straw and hay, and then the worker says, “Give me my wages” and the employer says, “take what you have done (namely, the straw and hay) as your wages,” we do not listen [to the employer]. [Translation by Rabbi Jill Jacobs]

We learnt elsewhere: If a spark which flies from the anvil goes forth and causes damage, he [the smith] is liable. If a camel laden with flax passes through a street, and the flax overflows into a shop, catches fire at the shopkeeper’s lamp, and sets the building alight, the camel owner is liable; but if the shopkeeper placed the light outside, the shopkeeper is liable. [Soncino translation]

We need [this example in the Mishnah specifying that local custom undermines an employer’s stipulation that workers begin early and stay late] for the case in which the employer raises the workers’ wages. In the case in which the employer says to them, “I raised your wages in order that you would begin work early and stay late,” they may reply, “You raised our wages in order that we would do better work.” [Soncino translation. Edited for gender neutrality]

Whoever withholds an employee’s wages, it is as though he has taken the person’s life from her. [Translation by Hillel. Edited for gender neutrality]

You shall not defraud your neighbor, nor rob him; the wages of he who is hired shall not remain with you all night until the morning. [translation by Artscroll]

These twenty years I have spent in your service, your ewes and she-goats never miscarried, nor did I feast on rams from your flock. That which was torn by beasts I never brought to you; I myself made good the loss; you exacted it of me, whether snatched by day or snatched by night. Often, scorching heat ravaged me by day and frost by night; and sleep fled from my eyes. Of the twenty years that I spent in your household, I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flocks; and you changed my wages time and again. Had not the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, been with me, you would have sent me away emptyhanded. But God took notice of my plight and the toil of my hands, and God gave judgment last night. [JPS translation]

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God: you shall not do any work - you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements. [JPS translation, Edited for gender neutrality]

Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Adonai your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath of Adonai your God; you shall not do any work-- you, your son or your daughter, or your male or your female slave, your ox or your ass, or any of your cattle, or your stranger in your settlements, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and Adonai your God freed you from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore Adonai your God commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. [JPS translation, edited for gender-neutrality]

You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers, or one of the strangers who are in your land inside your gates; At his day you shall give him his wages, nor shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and his life depends upon it; lest he cry against you to the Lord and it be a sin for you. [translation by Artscroll, adapted]