Sous-payer ses employés : est-ce un péché dans le judaïsme ?

Judaism's wage laws are among the oldest labor protections in continuous force. The Torah commands same-day payment (Deuteronomy 24:14-15) and forbids the wage remaining overnight (Leviticus 19:13) — and the Talmud, characteristically, counts precisely: Bava Metzia 111a teaches that one who withholds a worker's wages transgresses five distinct commandments (and in some formulations more). The category is oshek — oppression through withheld entitlement — and the tradition ranks it with robbery. Maimonides codifies payment rules so detailed they cover when a worker may eat from the produce he harvests and when he may not. Modern application by poskim and by Israel's rabbinic courts extends to minimum wage law (a dina d'malkhuta obligation), timely freelancer payment, and honest classification of employees. The tradition also understands the psychology of delay — employers hold wages because they can — which is why the Torah attaches the prohibition to the night: the deadline is sunset, not convenience. The Jewish ethic for employers is a memory exercise: 'you were slaves in Egypt,' so the vulnerable worker's dignity is a lesson your own history teaches.