By Chad Livengood
Detroit News, April 2, 2014
Ann Arbor — The personal sometimes becomes the political when it involves the nation’s commander in chief. While in town to give a speech to promote a ... hike in the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, President Barack Obama, U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, and the president’s 20-vehicle motorcade stopped at Zingerman’s Deli just before 1:30 p.m.
Zingerman’s co-owner Paul Saginaw is a member of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage and has signed a petition supporting an increase in the minimum wage. Zingerman’s also pays a wage higher than Michigan’s minimum wage of $7.40 an hour — which is 15 cents higher than the federal minimum of $7.25. ...
Later, at his U-M speech, Obama complimented Zingerman’s. “The Reuben is killer,” Obama said at the U-M intramural sports building. ...
Zingerman’s Deli, an Ann Arbor institution that celebrated its 32nd anniversary last month, pays entry level employees $9 an hour and has a company goal of increasing its minimum wage to $11 by the 2014-15 fiscal year, Saginaw said.
“We don’t think we’re going to stop there either,” he said Wednesday.
The deli, which has a low employee turnover rate, also offers its 140 workers a basic health insurance plan toward which they contribute $15 a month, a retirement savings plan, paid time off and dental coverage, Saginaw said.
“The more stable our employees are financially, the less they have to be stressed out about that part of their life and … they tend to be more productive,” he said.
Saginaw acknowledges his advocacy for a higher minimum wage is unpopular in his industry.
“Employers that are paying minimum wage are basically saying ‘Hey, I’d pay you less if I could but it’s illegal,’” Saginaw said in an interview. “My message to the restaurant industry: … invest in your employees, not in your lobbyists, and you’ll be much better off.”
Saginaw talked privately with the president in his restaurant and attended the rally. ...
“If workers are being paid well,” Obama said, “they are spending more money and businesses have more money.” ...
The president made clear during his speech why he stopped at the deli: “Zingerman’s is a business that treats its workers well.”
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