A lay person shall not eat of a holy thing; no foreign guest of the priest or hired worker shall eat of a holy thing, but if a priest buys a slave as his property for money, the slave may eat of it, and anyone born in his house may eat of his food.
Leviticus 22:10-11

In #torah, a slave has a higher status than a hireling in some respects. That might seem strange, but it's important not to interpret Scripture through the lens of our own culture.