By Lorraine Woellert
Bloomberg News, Jan 24, 2014
... If you can’t win on the merits, change the messaging, says Leo Hindery, founder of InterMedia Partners LP, a private equity fund in New York. As Obama prepares for his next annual address on Tuesday, he should abandon the phrase “minimum wage” and instead press lawmakers to approve a higher “entry-level wage” that would allow all U.S. workers to afford basics such as food and shelter, Hindery says. ...
Hindery and other corporate execs made the case for a higher minimum at a meeting yesterday with Labor Secretary Tom Perez.
Employers who pay workers enough to live on effectively subsidize companies whose employees have to rely on government assistance to make ends meet, said David Bolotsky, founder of Uncommon Goods, a Brooklyn-based online retailer, who called himself a believer in self reliance with “GOP leanings.”
“If I’m paying a worker minimum wage, that worker is getting food stamps,” Bolotsky said. “The government has to play the role of being the guardrail.”
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