Tom Perez Quotes

What we have is a pay structure that, on basic wages, is higher than market rate, as a general statement. When you look at other forms of retail, whether they be food or non-food, we pay more. If you look at our health care benefits, we pay a lot more.

My whole purpose really is to try to help working families to find better jobs and get better benefits and look out for the little guy.

I don't pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages.

I feel so fortunate and lucky I don't have to be a waitress or a bartender or a personal trainer.

The question today is whether we should be creating millions of new jobs at present wages or fewer new jobs at better wages.

I believe that if we are going to create jobs in this country, then let's create jobs that will absolutely put the working-class people at work to the point where they have one job. They don't have to work three because they have to work Wendy's, McDonald's, and Walmart to survive.

The best thing for workers is work, not unemployment.

Instead of focusing on this sort of defeatist mentality where we've gotta up the minimum wage, why don't we focus on creating better-paying jobs?

Jobs mean freedom for workers to support their families.

Walmart isn't your average mom-and-pop operation. It's the largest employer in America. As such, it's the trendsetter for millions of other employers of low-wage workers.

Today, a skilled manager makes more than the owner. And owners fight each other to get the skilled managers.

When you grow up with a mother who has to wash dishes and clean hotel rooms, you know the importance of having a job, and you can't be without a job for any length of time, or you will be without anything.

I even believe in helping an employer function more productively. For then, we will have a claim to higher wages, shorter hours, and greater participation in the benefits of running a smooth industrial machine.

Today, there are more Americans working than ever before in the history of our Nation, and the average wage of those workers is higher than it has ever been in the history of our Nation.

I think I'd work on making sure that Canadians have opportunities to find good jobs, to grow, to gain stability in terms of pensions. The reality is that Canadians don't feel that our economy is working for us.

Home Depot has never hired one human being for minimum wage, not one. We have always paid a premium over minimum wage.

Unlike in Europe, where serving is often a career rather than a backup plan, American table-waiting remains a bootstrap business, and some of the biggest skeptics of waiter training courses and schools are seasoned servers themselves.

All workers want is a fair shake.

In short, avoiding the scourge of unemployment may have less to do with chasing after growth and more to do with building an economy of care, craft and culture. And in doing so, restoring the value of decent work to its rightful place at the heart of society.

I think it's much more important to keep people in work than have pay rises.

Our thinking behind these agreements is that we want all jobs in General Motors to be good jobs.

If you don't allow yourself to change from book to book - take chances - it turns into a dullish job with no health benefits or pension plan and only intermittent paychecks.

We need more good jobs that reward hard work with rising wages, dignity, and a ladder to a better life.

Too many security officers live day to day. They just want to be treated with dignity.

The physical lot of … workers had notably improved, with unemployment insurance, social security, and the new health services, while their children's school education was assured by the government-operated schools: in addition, they had, for intellectual or emotional stimulus and diversion, the radio and the television. But the work itself was no longer as various, as interesting, or as sustaining to the personality...