Confused about the meaning of this... "The prohibition of Gezel and withholding payment to a worker doesn't apply to a non-Jew." Does it mean that you don't have to pay a non-jewish worker by the end of the day or the end of the night or does it mean that a non-Jew doesn't have to pay a worker by the end of the day of the end of the night, only jewish people do?
Sara Metzger, Sacramento
Maimonides wrote (Book of Commandments, Positive Commandments #200) that it is a positive Mitzvah of the Torah to pay a worker on time, whether or not the worker is Jewish or non-Jewish.
Only Jews have the Mitzvah to pay a worker by the end of the day or by the end of the night. Non-Jews are expected to keep the Seven Mitzvot of Noah (Genesis, chapter 9). One of these commandments is that one may not steal. However, stealing is defined by local law, and since the law of the land does not usually require payment of workers on the same day, this is not obligatory on non-Jews.
Dovid Bloom