By Melinda Henneberger
Washington Post, January 30, 2014
The cameras were rolling as Labor Secretary Thomas Perez asked Daniel Whitney how he likes his job at Ace Hardware in the Mount Vernon Square area, where all employees are paid more than the minimum wage. If you guessed that Whitney’s response was positive, you win a free key. ... Sales associates in green vests and big smiles showed Perez how to carve a key, mix a quart of paint and cut a piece of Plexiglas. But the real point of the visit to the locally owned retailer was to highlight President Obama’s State of the Union message about raising the federal minimum wage. Increasing it to $10.10 and indexing it to inflation would help Main Street, he argues, because more money in the pocket doesn’t stay there for long. ...
The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 and the D.C. rate is $8.25, but Ace owner Gina Schaefer pays workers at her nine stores as least $10 an hour, and partly matches their withholding for 401(k) retirement accounts, too. Another draw, sales associate Steve Held said, is a low-stress work environment: “They trust us to do the right thing and focus on the customer.” ...
The president seems to hope there’s some worth in the issue, too, in positioning his party in opposition to those who want to keep minimum-wage workers with no more purchasing power than they had 40 years ago.
Copyright 2014 The Washington Post