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By Dave Boucher
The Tennessean, Nov 19, 2014

As U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez toured Nashville business Letter Logic Wednesday, he said the employees he spoke with noted the culture of the business as their favorite part of their jobs. The culture of the transactional printing company includes employees earning at least $12 an hour, significantly higher than the $7.25 federal hourly minimum wage in place at many Tennessee businesses. ...

Tennessee has the highest percentage of minimum wage workers in the nation, but is one of the only states without a minimum wage law, according to a federal report released in March. The roughly 117,000 minimum wage workers in Tennessee account for about 7.5 percent of the state’s workforce. ...

Perez disputed the idea that raising the minimum wage would negatively impact businesses or risk jobs. He noted that voters in GOP-led states such as Arkansas, Nebraska and Alaska all sent Republicans to higher office while approving increases in the minimum wage. He said the minimum wage has historically been a bipartisan issue and encouraged the state, county or Nashville to pursue an increase.

“There’s an understanding that if you want to grow the economy, the most important thing you can do is put money in people’s pockets. Because when you put money in people’s pockets, they spend it,” Perez said. ...

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