St. Louis Post Dispatch Editorial, Sept 8, 2014. Also in the Missourian, Sept 9, 2014

With the nation’s minimum wage stuck at $7.25 an hour, it is no surprise that a recent Pew Research study of economic optimism shows that 56 percent of Americans say they are falling behind financially even in the midst of an economic recovery. ...

Holly Sklar, CEO of Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, wrote on these pages recently that small-business owners want an increase in the minimum wage because they depend on consumer spending, which is heavily dependent on...

Labor Day Op-Ed By Thomas E. Perez
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 8/28/14, Des Moines Register, Anchorage Daily News, many other papers

It used to be that you could support a family on a minimum-wage salary. Today, a minimum-wage worker has to make a choice every day: Buy a gallon of milk for the kids, or buy a gallon of gas to get to work. ...

A higher minimum wage is pro-business as well as pro-worker. Employers large and small, debunking the conventional wisdom, have embraced a higher minimum wage and acted on their own to raise their...

Op-Ed by Thomas E. Perez
Atlanta Journal Constitution, Aug 27, 2014

... Recently, Atlanta was the last stop of a five-city tour in advance of Labor Day to have a conversation with business, labor and civic leaders at a forum convened by Invest Atlanta. ... I also visited Bento Box, a full-scale animation studio where I met one worker who has risen in two years to become a supervisor thanks to on-the-job training partly funded by the Labor Department.

My message in Atlanta and at other stops was simple: We’re all in this together. ... If...

Op-Ed by Thomas E. Perez
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Aug 20, 2014

... Today, on the fourth stop of a five-city tour in advance of Labor Day, I'm coming to Cleveland to have a conversation with local business, labor and civic leaders at The City Club of Cleveland. ... I will also meet with a group of Clevelanders who have experienced long-term unemployment and hear about the challenges they have faced. My message in Cleveland and at other stops across the country is simple: we're all in this together. ...

If you're following the old script, you'll conclude...

Op-Ed by Thomas E. Perez
Houston Chronicle, Aug 15, 2014

... Tomorrow, on the second stop of a five-city tour in advance of Labor Day, I'm coming to Houston to have a conversation with local business, labor and civic leaders at a forum convened by the Greater Houston Partnership. ... My message in Houston and at other stops across the country is simple: We're all in this together. ...

Here's a great example: If you're following the old script, you'll conclude that business almost universally opposes the minimum wage. But in fact, according to recent polling...

Op-Ed by Thomas E. Perez
Los Angeles Daily News, Aug 14, 2014

... Today, on the first stop of a five-city tour in advance of Labor Day, I’m coming to Los Angeles to have a conversation with local business, labor and civic leaders at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. ... My message in Los Angeles and at other stops across the country is simple: we’re all in this together. To continue our economic recovery, we have to put down our pre-determined talking points, identify common ground and get to work.

Here’s a great example...

American Coin-Op, July 31, 2014

... Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a national network of business owners and executives who believe a “fair minimum wage makes good business sense,” published the results of its “scientific national opinion poll” indicating that 61% of small-business employers support increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 in “three stages over two-and-a-half years,” adjusting it annually to keep pace with the cost of living.

“Small-business support for raising the federal minimum wage is strong across the country. Employers favor raising the minimum wage to $10.10 by a 67% majority in...

By Diane Stafford
Kansas City Star, July 27, 2014; updated July 29, 2014

... At the NAACP convention last week in Las Vegas ... In a unanimous resolution, amid calls for “economic justice,” the organization backed raising the federal minimum wage. Since 2009, it’s been $7.25 an hour. For a growing chorus of voices, higher pay has become a civil rights issue. They argue that workers, especially on full-time hours, should be paid a “living wage” — enough to cover basic housing, food, fuel and clothing expenses — and minimum wage’s $15,000 a year doesn’t cut it...

After five years without an increase in the federal minimum wage, even Mary Poppins can't make enough to stay working for those adorable kids.

By Gabrielle Levy
UPI (United Press International), July 24, 2014

WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) --Five years to the day since the last increase in the federal minimum wage, Democrats are renewing a call to bring the minimum up to $10.10 an hour. In a speech in Los Angeles Thursday, President Obama drew attention to the anniversary, and in Washington, Sens. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Al Franken of Minnesota, and Rep. George Miller...

By Howard Greninger
The Tribune-Star (IN), July 24, 2014

Praise, ire surround push to raise low rung for worker compensation

TERRE HAUTE — Thursday marked the fifth anniversary since the federal minimum wage was increased, a wage U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez contends should again be raised. ... “It’s been exactly five years since workers at the bottom of the income ladder have gotten a raise. Since then, the cost of a gallon of milk, a week of child care, a month’s rent and everything else a working family needs has gone up” ... 

Wage...

By Alain Sherter
CBS Money Watch, July 24, 2014

... Although the minimum wage has risen to $7.25 over the ensuing years (tipped workers typically earn much less), the purchasing power of employees earning that baseline level pay has steadily shrunk because it isn't rising along with inflation. In fact, minimum-wage workers earn less today in real dollars than they did more than 50 years ago. In financial terms, they have effectively defied the laws of physics and traveled backward in time.

Today marks the five-year anniversary since the federal minimum was last raised, from...

Latin Business Today, July 24, 2014

WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) — Five years to the day since the last increase in the federal minimum wage, Democrats are renewing a call to bring the minimum up to $10.10 an hour. ... Harkin, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said more than 60 percent of small-business owners in the country polled said they support raising the minimum wage. Business owners understand that the people who would benefit are their customers, he said, and putting more money in their hands means better sales and...

By Jeremy Allen
MLive, July 24, 2014

The Obama Administration isn't above using social media to try to persuade Republicans in Congress to cast a unified vote with the Democrats in order to raise the federal minimum wage.
Thursday afternoon, the official Instagram page for the White House posted a photo of President Barack Obama's April 2, 2014 trip to Ann Arbor and Zingerman's Delicatessen with the following message: "It's time for Republicans in Congress to join Democrats and raise the minimum wage because nobody who works full-time should live in poverty. #1010Now #RaiseTheWage"

The post comes...