ABC News, WLS-TV Chicago, February 2, 2014

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin says it's time for the state and the country to have a "serious discussion" about raising the minimum wage. ... He was joined by minimum wage employees and a Chicago-area business owner who explained why he thinks he's able to retain employees.

"Our defacto minimum wage right now is $10 an hour, and we're talking about getting that up to $11.50 because we recognize how important it is that when people come to work they feel part of the community that we're talking about, they feel...

By E.J. Olsen, Jan 31, 2014

U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, State Rep. Adam Zemke, D-Ann Arbor, and State Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor met with Zingerman’s Deli staff and Ann Arbor business owners at the Deli yesterday afternoon to discuss proposed increases in the state and federal minimum wage. The Congressional Representatives chose to meet at Zingerman’s following a recent trip by Paul Saginaw to Washington D.C., where he, along with other national business leaders, met with U.S. Secretary of Labor, Thomas Perez. ...

Also present to express their support for the proposed legislation were...

By Josh Hicks
Washington Post, January 30, 2014

Labor Secretary Thomas Perez visited a locally-owned Ace Hardware in the nation’s capital on Thursday morning to push for an increase in the federal minimum wage. ...

The hardware store, located in the Mt. Vernon Square neighborhood, pays its employees at least $10 an hour. The federal minimum wage is $7.25, while the D.C. rate is $8.25.

Perez described the shop’s owner, Gina Schaefer, as a “remarkably visionary business owner,” saying she understands that “paying folks a fair wage is the essence of growing a business.” He...

By Gina Schaefer
Work In Progress, Dept of Labor Blog, Jan 30, 2014

Gina Schaefer, is the owner of A Few Cool Hardware Stores, a group of nine Ace Hardware stores in Washington, D.C., and Maryland.

As a small business owner, I am a firm believer that raising the minimum wage is the right thing to do. It will mean more money in the hands of those who need it, allowing them to pay for daily necessities without sacrificing their other basic needs. And increased wages means more money in peoples’ pockets that they then...

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...

By Thomas E. Perez, US Secretary of Labor
Huffington Post, Jan 30, 2014

It's time to give America a raise. ... Forward-looking companies get that this makes smart business sense. That's why the president and I visited a Costco store in Lanham, Md., the morning after his speech. Costco pays their workers good wages with benefits, while selling good products at competitive prices and remaining quite profitable. ...

But they're not the only company following this model. I just got back from a visit to the 5th Street Ace Hardware store in Washington, where all...

By Jeremy Allen
MLive (MI), Jan 30, 2014

U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, State Rep. Adam Zemke, D-Ann Arbor, and State Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, have scheduled a 3:30 p.m. “late lunch” at Zingerman’s Deli on Detroit Street in Ann Arbor to talk about Saginaw’s recent trip to Washington D.C., and the impacts of increased wages for low earners.

During Saginaw’s trip, he and several other business owners across the country met with the U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez to lobby for an increase in the national minimum from $7.25 per hour to...

By K.C. Wassman
Michigan Daily, January 30, 2014

Last week, Zingerman’s co-owner Paul Saginaw visited Washington, D.C. to lobby Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez for an increase in minimum wage. But on Thursday, D.C. came to Zingerman’s.

Rep. John Dingell (D–Mich.), joined by state Rep. Jeff Irwin (D–Ann Arbor) and state Rep. Adam Zemke (D–Ann Arbor), ate a late lunch with Zingerman’s employees and local business owners to discuss actions on the federal and state level to raise the minimum wage. Dingell, who is a co-sponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, said a local...

Central Premise
Federal Reserve System bloggers, Jan 30, 2014

Yesterday, someone sent me a link to Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. I like counterintuitive stories of all sorts, and Business for a Fair Minimum Wage seemed to fit the category. ...

The statement from Business for a Fair Minimum Wage has some of the same themes:

“As business owners and executives, we support raising the federal minimum wage to strengthen our economy. …

“Raising the minimum wage makes good business sense. …

“A recent national poll shows that 67 percent of small business owners...

By Shoham Geva
Michigan Daily, Jan 30, 2014

Five community groups and organizations announced Monday the formation of a new ballot committee, Raise Michigan, which will explore the feasibility of a November ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage in the state. ... In its initial announcement, Raise Michigan outlined three main goals for its campaign: raising the minimum wage from its current rate of $7.40 per hour to a figure between $9 and $10 per hour, raising the minimum wage for restaurant servers and tying the minimum wage to the inflation index. ...

Democratic gubernatorial candidate...

By Patrick Clark
Bloomberg BusinessWeek, January 29, 2014

President Obama mentioned small business three times in his State of the Union Address last night, touting his administration’s record of promoting small business lending and calling for better tools to help business owners sell in foreign markets. He also sent a shout out to John Soranno, a Minneapolis pizzeria owner who recently gave employees a raise to $10 an hour. To judge by the response of small business advocacy groups, that wasn’t enough. ...

Chicago-area caterer David Borris from the left-leaning Main Street Alliance said raising the minimum wage would...

By Luz Lazo
Washington Post,  January 29, 2014

President Obama Wednesday morning urged an increase of the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25 per hour to $10.10 at a Costco in one of Washington’s suburbs, where the local government recently passed legislation to raise the wages. ... 

Maryland has been one of the states pushing most aggressively for a raise in its minimum wage: Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) recently proposed raising the state’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. In 2007, Maryland passed a “living wage” law for companies contracting with the state. Numerous local governments have...

By Angel González
Seattle Times, January 29, 2014

... On Wednesday, the day after his State of the Union address called for lifting the minimum wage for working Americans, the president chose to speak at a Costco in Maryland. The Issaquah-based company, he said, is proof that higher wages are “a smart way to boost productivity and to reduce turnover.” ...

The presidential visit underscores how Costco is gaining a prominent role in the growing national debate about income inequality.

The company is known for paying its workers well — an average $20.89 per hour for...

By Editorial Staff
Workplace Weekly News, Jan 29, 2014

President Obama in his State Of The Union address called on businesses, mayors, governors to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 ... In a related development, small Business Owners Say, ‘Raise the Minimum Wage’ in a jaw-jaw with Secretary of labor:

Amanda Rothschild runs a small café in Baltimore in which she pays her employees just above the current federal minimum wage, and she does so because it’s good for her bottom line. She told me [Sec. Perez] that when you put more money in workers’ pockets, they...