Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez met with community groups in Miami Beach last month to discuss increasing the minimum wage and workers’ rights. Perez has made increasing the minimum wage a priority since he took office in 2013; he famously stated in one of his earliest speeches that “we suck” on the minimum wage.
He isn’t the only one pushing for a higher minimum wage—residents of Los Angeles voted last month to boost the minimum wage from $9 to $15 by 2020, a move the New York Times calls “perhaps the most significant victory so far for labor groups and their allies who are engaged in a national push to raise the minimum wage.” Moreover, a May survey from Quinnipiac University found that 71% of New Yorkers support raising the minimum wage to $10.50. We’ll have to see how the debate plays out in other states.
Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez (L) makes a pizza with the kitchen manager, Freddie Melgar, after a meeting at the Pi Pizzeria restaurant on May 14, 2015 in Miami Beach, Florida. Perez met with members of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, the South Florida Wage Theft Task Force, and business leaders concerned with raising wages for workers. The co-founder of Pi Pizzeria, Chris Sommers, publicly supports raising the minimum wage as a way to boost business and along with Secretary Perez hopes that the growing momentum towards increasing the minimum wage continues nationally. (Getty Images)
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