By Scott Harrison
Nashville Business Journal, Nov 19, 2014
Thomas Perez, the U.S. secretary of labor, says the Tennessee economy would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage. Perez was in Nashville Wednesday, meeting with local business leaders to discuss the minimum wage issue. I caught up with him after that roundtable discussion, which was closed to the media.
"The level of attrition in the businesses is all very low," Perez said of turnover at the Nashville business owners he met. "They made a compelling business case for why fair wages and good profits aren't mutually exclusive, but go hand-in-hand."
Perez's main argument: Putting more dollars in the pockets of employees will boost consumer spending and lessen the reliance on government programs. ...
Tennessee is one of a few states without a statewide minimum wage law. A recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report found about 7.4 percent of the state's workforce earns at or below the federal minimum wage, the largest percent of any state in the country. ...
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