The typical minimum wage earner is a provider and a breadwinner – most likely a woman – responsible for paying bills, running a household and raising children. – Thomas Perez
There’s a myth out there that you have to genuflect at the altar of quarterly earnings. But it’s a false choice that you can either be a good fiduciary or promote values such as environmental sustainability. – Thomas Perez
It stands to reason: Higher wages means higher loyalty and morale, which means higher productivity, which means a more profitable business. – Thomas Perez
Involvement in my kids’ sports teams is something I have made time for over the years. I’ve also been able to coach all three of them in baseball and basketball, something that has strengthened our bonds and given me indescribable joy. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. – Thomas Perez
People who work full-time in America should not have to live in poverty – simple as that. Too many jobs don’t pay enough to get by, let alone get ahead. Too many people are finding the rungs on the ladder of opportunity further and further apart. – Thomas Perez
What we want to do is call attention to the fact that when workers and business work together, when you create a stakeholder model of corporate governance, where you understand that you can do well by your workers, you can do well by your shareholders and you can do well by your customers, that’s how we create a virtuous cycle. – Thomas Perez
President Obama has made a minimum wage increase a focal point of his economic agenda. – Thomas Perez
I’ve heard the argument that unemployment benefits somehow act as a disincentive to the long-term unemployed when it comes to looking for work, but the opposite is true. Unemployment Insurance serves as a powerful incentive for people to keep searching for jobs, rather than drop out of the labor force altogether. – Thomas Perez
In the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works a full time job should have to live in poverty. That’s a fundamental value proposition, an article of faith in our country that I know an overwhelming majority of Americans agree on. – Thomas Perez
Everything has changed in recent decades – the economy, technology, cultural attitudes, the demographics of the workforce, the role of women in society and the structure of the American family. It’s about time our laws caught up. We watch ‘Modern Family’ on television, but we’re still living by ‘Leave It To Beaver’ rules. – Thomas Perez
When we lift the wage floor, it not only betters the lives of those whose wages are directly affected, it also lifts the economy as a whole. – Thomas Perez
When we talk about the kind of folks whose lives will be made better by raising the minimum wage, we’re not talking about a couple teenagers earning extra spending money to supplement their allowance. We’re talking about providers and breadwinners. Working Americans with bills to pay and mouths to feed. – Thomas Perez
I like to call the Department of Labor the Department of Opportunity, and that means opportunity for everyone – no matter whom you love. – Thomas Perez
Labor Day 2013 is special. This year marks the centennial of the U.S. Department of Labor – 100 years of working for America’s workers. – Thomas Perez
Post-military service can be a period of anxiety and uncertainty. So many men and women return and ask themselves: what now? The Labor Department is here to help answer that question with an array of programs designed to clear pathways into the middle class. – Thomas Perez
Workers all too frequently have been taking it on the chin. They’re working hard and falling behind, all too frequently. – Thomas Perez
My parents, fleeing a repressive regime in the Dominican Republic, were embraced by this country and taught us to love it in return. After my father served proudly in the U.S. Army, they settled in Buffalo, N.Y., and were able to live the American Dream. – Thomas Perez
From the outset, the Obama administration has recognized that building a robust skills infrastructure means building strong partnerships with community colleges. – Thomas Perez
To fulfill the promise of economic opportunity, we must remain true to the principle that collective bargaining is a cornerstone of a free society and indispensable to a strong middle class. – Thomas Perez
President Obama believes that income inequality is one of the most pressing matters facing the nation. If we are going to be a country that provides ladders of opportunity and believes in a thriving middle class, then we have to raise the minimum wage. – Thomas Perez
Clearly, apprenticeships are a win-win: They provide workers with sturdy rungs on that ladder of opportunity and employers with the skilled workers they need to grow their businesses. And yet in America, they’ve traditionally been an undervalued and underutilized tool in our nation’s workforce development arsenal. – Thomas Perez
Workers are baking the pie of prosperity, but they’re not sharing in those dividends. That’s unfair. – Thomas Perez
When you put more money in the pockets of working families, they spend it on groceries, gas, school supplies, and other goods and services. And that helps businesses grow and create jobs. So many forward-looking employers, large and small, understand this. – Thomas Perez
We have to bake labor provisions into the core of an agreement. TPP would do that. Under NAFTA, countries had to simply promise to uphold the laws of their own nations. – Thomas Perez
If the opponents of an increase in the minimum wage were correct, then every time you fly to Seattle, you’ve got to bring a bagged lunch because there shouldn’t be any restaurants because they should have all have gone out of business as a result of raising the minimum wage. – Thomas Perez
Protecting the rights of service members was an important part of my work as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. – Thomas Perez
The employers who do best are employers who reject these false choices. It’s not a zero-sum world where you either take care of your workers or you take care of your shareholders. You can do good and do well, too. – Thomas Perez
Our workforce and our entire economy are strongest when we embrace diversity to its fullest, and that means opening doors of opportunity to everyone and recognizing that the American Dream excludes no one. – Thomas Perez
Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 will benefit about 28 million workers across the country. And it will help businesses, too – raising the wage will put more money in people’s pockets, which they will pump back into the economy by spending it on goods and services in their communities. – Thomas Perez
