I believe the passage of a national paid family and medical leave law is not a question of if, but when. But as is so often the case on important public policy issues, we need states and localities to be the incubators of innovation.
— Tom Perez
Of all the tough decisions in life, choosing between the job you need and the family you love should not be one of them.
When the federal government imposes a mandate on the states or supersedes a state policy, conservatives often rise in protest.
Americans should be able to enjoy a secure retirement after a lifetime of hard work. But too many Americans reach retirement without enough savings to supplement their Social Security benefits.
We need to do more to support working families, like guarantee access to paid sick and parental leave and make sure every parent has access to quality, affordable child care.
Historians have often censored civil rights activists' commitment to economic issues and misrepresented the labor and civil rights movements as two separate, sometimes adversarial efforts. But civil rights and workers' rights are two sides of the same coin.
With patience, persistence, and partnership, we can create economic opportunity for every person willing to work hard for it.
Public service has allowed me to put values my parents taught me into action.
I've got so much going on in my day job. And I've been around politics enough to know all the swirl that's fit to print, and so I focus on the reality of the here and now.
When you work extra, you should be paid extra. That's what the Fair Labor Standards Act said. And I've met so many people who are working 60-70 hours a week, and they are effectively working 20 hours for free because they are making a little bit above the minimum wage, because the 2004 regulation enables employers to do that. That's not fair.
How do we make sure that rising tides lift all boats and not just the yachts?
The labor movement is our brother's keeper! The labor movement is our sister's keeper!
We need to be focused in corporate America on the long term.
There's a long bipartisan tradition of civil rights enforcement.
Hillary Clinton is about 'we.' Donald Trump is about 'me.'
I think public sector workers, our teachers, our firefighters, our home health workers who work for states, they do God's work. They are some of our most important employees.
There are just way too many people suffering out there.
As I travel around the country, I am inspired by leaders who know that offering paid leave - whether sick time or family leave - isn't just the right thing to do: it's essential to building an economy that works for everyone.
When I travel around the country and talk about the need to raise the minimum wage or expand access to paid leave, I often talk about the need for us to reject false choices.
The Department of Labor's final conflict of interest rule will ensure that America's workers and retirees receive retirement advice in their best interest.
A secure retirement is one of the pillars of middle class life. For all too many Americans, however, that pillar needs more support.
The first Friday of every month is what we call Numbers Day - it's the day that the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the monthly jobs report. We have a ritual at the Labor Department - at 8 A.M., we gather around a table in my office, and the commissioner of labor statistics briefs me and the department's senior leadership on the numbers.
We have to invest in people if we're going to have a country where every person can participate in our economy and share in our prosperity, and we have to break down the many barriers that stand in their way.
I've learned that it's important to listen to employees at all levels, to engage them, to empower them. Whether you're a first-line supervisor or the head of an entire agency, you should be asking career staffers, 'What do you think?'
My parents both came to the United States from the Dominican Republic, and they were deeply grateful for the opportunities this country provided. They raised my siblings and me to want to make a difference and give back. They taught us to work hard and aim high, but to also make sure the ladder was down to help others climb up.
If the price of a burger goes up 5 cents, and the minimum wage that you have received is going up from $7.25 to $15 an hour - and there have been a number of studies that document just how much the price of a burger might go up if you increase the minimum wage. You match the costs, and the benefits far outweigh the costs.
We're trying to make sure that financial advisers act like lawyers and doctors. When you go to a lawyer or doctor, they have an obligation to put your best interests first. Financial advisers don't.
If you're one car accident away from poverty, you're on a high wire without a safety net. And that's a challenging proposition.
It is not possible that it is God's will that women are making 77 cents on a dollar.
What my parents taught me was that the hallmark of a thriving democracy was an effective and respectful police force.
Secretary Clinton is tough, smart, and understands better than any candidate the challenges that parents are talking about around dinner tables and keeping families up at night.
The differences between Secretary Clinton and Donald Trump in terms of temperament, in terms of values, couldn't be more stark.
One of the best ways to grow this economy is to put money in people's pockets.
It's a false choice to say we either have job safety or job growth. It's a false choice to suggest that the only way for a business to survive is to make sure workers have low wages and little or no benefits. There are ample models across this country where we've demonstrated the contrary.
The United States is one of the few nations on the planet where paid family and medical leave or earned sick time is not the law of the land.
Economically Targeted Investing, or ETI, refers to the practice of selecting investments, in part, for their collateral benefits in addition to the investment return for the retirement plan.
Workers are most likely to save for retirement if they have access to a workplace savings plan and are automatically enrolled in that plan.
We need to enact comprehensive immigration reform, to bring people out of the shadows and empower them to more fully and freely participate in their communities and the economy. And we need to invest in our nation's deteriorating infrastructure - investments that would create jobs and benefit all sectors of the economy.
Under the leadership of President Obama and a whole host of partners, including nonprofits, foundations, and advocates, the Department of Labor has made historic investments in community colleges, apprenticeships, coding boot camps, and summer jobs.
King had come to Memphis to lend his moral authority to the struggle of striking municipal sanitation workers who were overwhelmingly African-American. They earned poverty wages, endured degrading working conditions, and faced brutal beatings when they tried to organize.
I think one of the most important things we can do for people is to expand opportunity - whether it's the opportunity to live a life free of discrimination or the opportunity to get a good job that provides a gateway to the middle class. I've dedicated my career to expanding opportunity, and it's proven incredibly rewarding.
Discrimination is not a national defense strategy!
The overtime rule was frankly diluted in 2004 by a regulation put in place by the Bush administration.
We have a long and proud tradition as a nation of investing in our human capital so that we can build a thriving middle class. You look at the G.I. Bill after the war - it was an investment in our service members who had served this nation with distinction.
And as we work together, we will build a better America! As we work together, we will bring the middle class to thrive again! As we work together, we will make sure that everybody has the ladder of opportunity to climb!
People have choices. They are going to vote with their feet.
I'm often accused of hiring people with civil rights experience, and I do plead guilty to that.
Progressives believe in making progress, which is why I'm proud to endorse Hillary Clinton, who I know will continue fighting to ensure our children and grandchildren can achieve their highest and best dreams.
There's this notion out there - and it's a categorically false notion - that the only business model in the service industry is the minimum-wage business model. I say phooey to that. You go to a Costco store, and you see people there who've been working there for years and years. They're making $15, $20 an hour, plus health benefits.
What I hear from employers day in and day out is, 'I need to make sure I have that skilled workforce to compete.' And so we've been able to help so many people punch their ticket to the middle class by transforming our workforce development system for advanced manufacturing jobs and other critical jobs that exist right now.
