By Aldo Svaldi
Denver Post, September 14, 2016
U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez on Wednesday threw the Obama administration’s full support behind Colorado’s Amendment 70, which seeks to raise the state’s minimum wage from $8.31 an hour to $12 an hour by 2020.
“This is one where the nation is watching,” Perez told a round table of workers, business owners and nonprofit and union leaders gathered at Teatulia Tea Bar in Denver. “The President is with you. I am with you.”
Colorado, Arizona, Washington and Maine all have ballot measures to lift the state minimum wage. Perez expressed confidence they would all pass, just as similar measures did in Alaska, Alabama, South Dakota and Nebraska in 2014.
Those last four states are considered red, or Republican leaning. But Perez said voters regardless of all party affiliations realize that low-wage workers are struggling to make it.
“This is is not a Democrat or Republican issue,” Perez said. “No one who works a full-time job should be in poverty.” ...