Robin Young
WBUR/NPR, Here & Now, Feb 12, 2014
President Obama is signing an executive order today that will raise the minimum wage for workers under new federal contracts. ... Labor Secretary Thomas Perez has been called the President's ambassador on raising the minimum wage .... He was supposed to be in Cambridge, MA today to visit the store Cambridge Naturals but today's executive order signing keeps him in Washington …
Perez: "And the small business owners that I've spoken to including people in Cambridge and elsewhere have said when you pay your workers a fair wage you retain them longer and when you retain them longer that makes your business that much more productive and efficient ... And when you pay $10.10 … you put more money in people pockets and so they spend more and they buy more things and we employ more people." ...
On the idea that raising the minimum wage is a bad business model
Perez: “It’s really interesting to look at business models across the board. Let’s look at the big box business model. Costco has demonstrated: that you can pay your workers a decent wage and pay your shareholders a decent return and offer very competitive prices.
“Look at the burger market. Any one of your listeners who has been to the West Coast, and been to a burger joint called In-N-Out Burger - there's 6 - 700 franchises across the West Coast. Best burgers around. They’ve always paid their workers above the minimum wage, because it was the right thing to do, and they retain their employees, and they have a competitive price.
"You look at small business owners. I was at an Ace Hardware store recently - your quintessential small neighborhood hardware store - talking to the owner asking her why are you paying above the minimum wage. And she said I've retained my workers for years here and they know what they're doing and when the customers come in and they know that the workers know what they're doing and know what they're talking about they become loyal customers.
"And so we've seen time and time again that the notion that if you pay a higher wage you have to somehow either hire less people or charge exorbitant prices - that's been debunked by the business models that exist in basically every sector."