Washington Post, April 7, 2014

Excerpt: Pay: Hardware store owner backs increase
By Jonathan O’Connell, Capital Business

Gina Schaefer’s Ace Hardware store on P Street NW contributed to the resurgence of Logan Circle, and she now owns nine stores in D.C. and Maryland. When developers ask residents what retailers they’d like to see in their own neighborhoods, Schaefer’s name is frequently among those mentioned. Schaefer says one key to her success has been paying her employees more than competitors, and last week she joined officials on Capitol Hill to support a federal minimum wage increase.

“When...

Home Channel News, April 7, 2014

The continuing debate over the minimum wage law is one that disproportionately affects retailers. That doesn't mean all retailers see it the same way.

Leading the charge against federal raises is the National Retail Federation. The advocacy group has published statement after statement urging Congress to stand down to the push for higher wages. ...

Gina Schaefer, the owner of nine Ace Hardware stores in the D.C. metro area took a stand at Capitol Hill in favor of raising the federal minimum wage. Schaefer spoke at an April 3...

By Natalie Wright, Maria Rigou, Jon Price
Washtenaw Voice, Washtenaw Community College (MI), April 7, 2014

... During his visit to the University of Michigan last week, Obama addressed an audience of more than a thousand U-M students and other special guests, speaking to them with an air of cool approachability. But before addressing wide-ranging issues from minimum wage, partisan politics, immigration reform, and student loans to economic and social inequalities, Obama spoke to the students about his failed “March Madness” bracket – and his lunch at Zingerman’s Deli. ...

Why Zingerman’s?

Obama has frequented...

By Jeremy Allen
MLive Michigan, April 6, 2014

Ray Gholston works hard to earn his paychecks. He’s a full-time clerk at a retail store on the west side of Ann Arbor, where he helps keep the store organized and checks customers out at the register all while making $7.40 per hour.

He’s also homeless and has been since November, spending his nights – and some off days – at the Delonis Center in downtown Ann Arbor. Gholston said that his low-wage job doesn’t afford him the ability to pay rent anywhere in Ann Arbor or close...

By Sharyn Jackson
Des Moines Register, April 5, 2014

Raising the minimum wage will give workers more money to spend at local businesses, boosting profitability and the economy, U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez said Saturday in Des Moines.

Perez visited Raygun, a T-shirt shop and screen printing company in Des Moines' East Village, along with Iowa Democrats U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, and state Sen. Jack Hatch, to tour the facility and campaign for raising the minimum wage. ...

[Mike] Draper said he pays his employees above the current $7.25...

By Erich Wagner
Alexandria Times (VA), April 4, 2014

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) visited the Arlandria branch of MOM’s Organic Market on Monday to laud the company’s practice of paying workers above the federal minimum wage.

Kaine toured the Mount Vernon Avenue store with MOM’s CEO Scott Nash in advance of heated debate in Congress this week over a bill raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour in the next several years. He said that MOM’s shows opponents and other companies that raising the wage is not a so-called “job killer.”...

DOL News, April 3, 2014

A 10-state bus tour campaign to increase the minimum wage came to a close April 3 in our nation's capital. The bus tour, led by Americans United for Change, highlighted the stories of workers throughout the country who are struggling to put food on the table and buy medicine for their children. U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez joined the April 3 event, where Ruben Jones, a full-time cook at a restaurant, had the crowd in tears when he told his story about how he has two children and...

By Jessica Webster, Ann Arbor News
MLive Michigan, April 3, 2014

Sometimes a hunch pays off. When you're the food and dining reporter at the local newspaper, you might find yourself one of the only people left in the office on the day when the President of the United States is in town. ... And at some point, you might just decide that you should grab a camera and head over to Zingerman's Deli, just in case the president had a craving for a Reuben. ...

After all, the president - or a member of his staff...

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...

By Aamer Mahdani
USA Today, April 2, 2014

With Congress expected to soon begin debating whether to lift the minimum wage, President Obama on Wednesday said lawmakers must choose between giving Americans "the shaft" or "a raise." ...

Obama traveled to the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan for his latest push on the issue.

In the coming days, the Senate is likely to debate a plan by Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin that would gradually lift today's minimum wage of $7.25 an hour to $10.10 by 2016. Democrats will need 60 Senate votes...