By Melinda Henneberger
Washington Post,  January 30, 2014

The cameras were rolling as Labor Secretary Thomas Perez asked Daniel Whitney how he likes his job at Ace Hardware in the Mount Vernon Square area, where all employees are paid more than the minimum wage. If you guessed that Whitney’s response was positive, you win a free key. ... Sales associates in green vests and big smiles showed Perez how to carve a key, mix a quart of paint and cut a piece of Plexiglas. But the real point of the visit to the locally owned retailer was to...

By Thomas E. Perez, US Secretary of Labor
Huffington Post, Jan 30, 2014

It's time to give America a raise. ... Forward-looking companies get that this makes smart business sense. That's why the president and I visited a Costco store in Lanham, Md., the morning after his speech. Costco pays their workers good wages with benefits, while selling good products at competitive prices and remaining quite profitable. ...

But they're not the only company following this model. I just got back from a visit to the 5th Street Ace Hardware store in Washington, where all...

By Jeremy Allen
MLive (MI), Jan 30, 2014

U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, State Rep. Adam Zemke, D-Ann Arbor, and State Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, have scheduled a 3:30 p.m. “late lunch” at Zingerman’s Deli on Detroit Street in Ann Arbor to talk about Saginaw’s recent trip to Washington D.C., and the impacts of increased wages for low earners.

During Saginaw’s trip, he and several other business owners across the country met with the U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez to lobby for an increase in the national minimum from $7.25 per hour to...

By K.C. Wassman
Michigan Daily, January 30, 2014

Last week, Zingerman’s co-owner Paul Saginaw visited Washington, D.C. to lobby Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez for an increase in minimum wage. But on Thursday, D.C. came to Zingerman’s.

Rep. John Dingell (D–Mich.), joined by state Rep. Jeff Irwin (D–Ann Arbor) and state Rep. Adam Zemke (D–Ann Arbor), ate a late lunch with Zingerman’s employees and local business owners to discuss actions on the federal and state level to raise the minimum wage. Dingell, who is a co-sponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, said a local...

Central Premise
Federal Reserve System bloggers, Jan 30, 2014

Yesterday, someone sent me a link to Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. I like counterintuitive stories of all sorts, and Business for a Fair Minimum Wage seemed to fit the category. ...

The statement from Business for a Fair Minimum Wage has some of the same themes:

“As business owners and executives, we support raising the federal minimum wage to strengthen our economy. …

“Raising the minimum wage makes good business sense. …

“A recent national poll shows that 67 percent of small business owners...

By Shoham Geva
Michigan Daily, Jan 30, 2014

Five community groups and organizations announced Monday the formation of a new ballot committee, Raise Michigan, which will explore the feasibility of a November ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage in the state. ... In its initial announcement, Raise Michigan outlined three main goals for its campaign: raising the minimum wage from its current rate of $7.40 per hour to a figure between $9 and $10 per hour, raising the minimum wage for restaurant servers and tying the minimum wage to the inflation index. ...

Democratic gubernatorial candidate...

By Patrick Clark
Bloomberg BusinessWeek, January 29, 2014

President Obama mentioned small business three times in his State of the Union Address last night, touting his administration’s record of promoting small business lending and calling for better tools to help business owners sell in foreign markets. He also sent a shout out to John Soranno, a Minneapolis pizzeria owner who recently gave employees a raise to $10 an hour. To judge by the response of small business advocacy groups, that wasn’t enough. ...

Chicago-area caterer David Borris from the left-leaning Main Street Alliance said raising the minimum wage would...

By Luz Lazo
Washington Post,  January 29, 2014

President Obama Wednesday morning urged an increase of the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25 per hour to $10.10 at a Costco in one of Washington’s suburbs, where the local government recently passed legislation to raise the wages. ... 

Maryland has been one of the states pushing most aggressively for a raise in its minimum wage: Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) recently proposed raising the state’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. In 2007, Maryland passed a “living wage” law for companies contracting with the state. Numerous local governments have...

By Angel González
Seattle Times, January 29, 2014

... On Wednesday, the day after his State of the Union address called for lifting the minimum wage for working Americans, the president chose to speak at a Costco in Maryland. The Issaquah-based company, he said, is proof that higher wages are “a smart way to boost productivity and to reduce turnover.” ...

The presidential visit underscores how Costco is gaining a prominent role in the growing national debate about income inequality.

The company is known for paying its workers well — an average $20.89 per hour for...

By Editorial Staff
Workplace Weekly News, Jan 29, 2014

President Obama in his State Of The Union address called on businesses, mayors, governors to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 ... In a related development, small Business Owners Say, ‘Raise the Minimum Wage’ in a jaw-jaw with Secretary of labor:

Amanda Rothschild runs a small café in Baltimore in which she pays her employees just above the current federal minimum wage, and she does so because it’s good for her bottom line. She told me [Sec. Perez] that when you put more money in workers’ pockets, they...

By Bonnie Washuk
Sun Journal (Lewison-Auburn, ME),  January 29, 2014

AUBURN — President Barack Obama's call in Tuesday's State of the Union address for employers to pay workers a minimum of $10.10 per hour got a mixed reaction in Maine on Wednesday. ... Jim Wellehan of Auburn, who owns Lamey Wellehan shoe stores and is an activist for fair wages, said he agreed with the president. Paying workers a fair wage is important for a good business and a healthy economy, he said.

“It's only fair,” said Wellehan, who belongs to a national business group that favors...

By Krystal Nichols and Getahn Ward
The Tennessean, Jan 29, 2014

... Some business executives see raising the minimum wage as a way to boost the economy since it would encourage more spending. “I don’t know how any corporation can condone poverty wages. How can you live with yourself when you have workers who can’t put a meal on the table?” said Maryanne Howland, owner of Ibis Communications.

David Penn, director for the Business and Economic Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University, said an increase in the minimum wage is needed to counteract a long-term...

State of the Union
By Michael R. Crittenden and Eric Morath
Wall Street Journal, Washington Wire, Jan 28, 2014

Republican lawmakers challenged President Barack Obama’s plan to raise the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors, suggesting it would have little impact on workers and could exacerbate partisan gridlock. Democrats were quick to celebrate the move, to be announced during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. It would raise the minimum wage for workers on new federal contracts to $10.10 an hour. ...

“These jobs include food service workers in federal buildings, people doing laundry...

By Leah Arnold-Smeets
PayScale, Jan 28, 2014

... Small business owners are in favor of raising minimum wage because it will put “more money in the pockets of those in their communities,” according to an interview by Secretary Tom Perez for the US Department of Labor. One of those small business owners is Amanda Rothschild who owns a small café in Baltimore, and she justifies the wage increase.

“Our training costs would be significantly higher if we paid lower wages and we had the kind of turnover that you typically see in a restaurant,” she explains...

By Diane Stafford
Kansas City Star, Jan 28, 2014

... Just hours before his annual State of the Union address, in which he once again called on Congress to raise the $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage for all workers, [President] Obama exercised his presidential ability to set a higher minimum wage for federally contracted employees. The order affects a small number of such workers — probably fewer than half a million low-paid workers such as food service, laundry and janitorial workers nationwide. ...

The order doesn’t include the federal government’s own workers and won’t take effect until...