Obama talks about the minimum wage and retirement

The following remarks about the minimum wage were made by President Barack Obama at the Costco store in Lanham, Md., on Jan. 29, 2014.

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I talked a little bit about this last night in my State of the Union address — a simple but profound idea — and it’s an idea that’s at the heart of who we are as Americans: Opportunity for everybody.  Giving everybody a fair chance. If they’re willing to work hard, take responsibility, give them a shot.

The idea that no matter who you are, where you come from, what you look like, what your last name is, if you work hard, you live up to your responsibilities, you can succeed; you can support a family. That’s what America should be about. Nobody is looking for a free lunch, but give people a chance. If they’re working hard, make sure they can support a family.

Now, we’re at a moment where businesses all across the country, businesses like Costco have created 8 million new jobs over the last four years. Our unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in more than five years. Our deficits have been cut in half. Housing is rebounding. Manufacturing is adding jobs for the first time since the ‘90s. We sell more of what we make here in America to other places than ever before. Business leaders are deciding that China’s not the best place to invest and create jobs — America is.

So this could be a breakthrough year for America. After five years of hard work, overcoming the worst recession in our lifetimes, we’re better-positioned for this young century than anybody else. But the question for folks in Washington is whether they’re going to help that progress or hinder that progress; whether they’re going to waste time creating new crises for people and new uncertainty — like the shutdown — or are we going to spend time creating new jobs and new opportunities.

And I know what I’m choosing to do because it’s what you do — I’m choosing this to be a year of action. Because too many Americans are working harder than ever just to get by, much less get ahead. The scars of the recession are real. The middle class has been taking it on the chin since before the recession. The economy has been growing for four years now, and corporate profits, stock prices have all soared. But the wages and incomes of ordinary people haven’t gone up in over a decade.

So that’s why last night, I laid out some steps that we can take, concrete, common-sense proposals to speed up economic growth, strengthen the middle class, build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class.

And this opportunity agenda has four parts. Number one, we need more new jobs. Number two, we need to train more Americans with the skills that they need to fill those jobs. Number three, we should guarantee every child access to a world-class education. And number four, let’s make sure hard work pays off. 

Now, some of my ideas I’ll need Congress. But America can’t just stand still if Congress isn’t doing anything. I’m not going to stand still either. Wherever I can take steps to expand opportunity for more families, I’m going to do it — with or without Congress. Because the defining project of our time, of our generation, is to restore opportunity for everybody.

And so I’m here at Costco today to talk about the fourth part of the opportunity agenda, and that is making hard work pay off for every single American.

Five years ago, I signed my first bill into law — the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Lilly was at my speech last night. And it’s a law to help protect a woman’s right to fair pay. But at a time when women make up about half of the workforce, but still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns — we’ve got to finish the job and give women the tools they need to fight for equal pay.  Women deserve equal pay for equal work. They deserve — if they’re having a baby, they shouldn’t have to sacrifice their job.  A mom deserves a day off to care for a sick child or a sick parent — and a father does, too.

As I said last night, we got to get rid of some of these workplace policies that belong in a “Mad Men” episode, belong back in the ‘50s. We’ve got to give every woman the opportunity she deserves. Because when women succeed, America succeeds. 

Now, women happen to hold a majority of lower-wage jobs in America. But they’re not the only ones who are stifled when wages aren’t going up. As Americans, we understand some people are going to earn more than other people, and we don’t resent those who because they work hard, because they come up with a new idea, they achieve incredible success. We want our kids to be successful.

And it’s funny — Michelle and I sometimes talk — Michelle’s dad was a blue-collar worker; her mom was a secretary. I was raised by a single mom. We didn’t go around when we were growing up being jealous about folks who had made a lot of money — as long as if we were working hard, we could have enough.

So Americans overwhelmingly agree nobody who works full-time should ever have to raise a family in poverty. And that is why I firmly believe it’s time to give America a raise. 

A hundred years ago, Henry Ford started Ford Motor Company. Model T — you remember all that?  Henry Ford realized he could sell more cars if his workers made enough money to buy the cars. He had started this — factories and mass production and all that, but then he realized, if my workers aren’t getting paid, they won’t be able to buy the cars. And then I can’t make a profit and reinvest to hire more workers. But if I pay my workers a good wage, they can buy my product, I make more cars. Ultimately, I’ll make more money, they’ve got more money in their pockets — so it’s a win-win for everybody.

And leaders today, business leaders today, some of them understand this same concept.  Costco’s CEO, Craig Jelinek, he understands this. He feels the same way. He knows that Costco is going to do better, all our businesses do better when customers have more money to spend. And listen, Craig is a wonderful guy, but he’s not in this for philanthropy. He’s a businessman. He’s looking at the bottom line. But he sees that if he’s doing right by Costco’s workers, then they can buy that 80-inch TV, too.

Profitable corporations like Costco see higher wages as a smart way to boost productivity and to reduce turnover. So entry-level employees here — stock associates, cashiers — start out at $11.50 an hour.

The average hourly wage is more than $20, not including overtime or benefits. And Costco’s commitment to fairness doesn’t stop at the checkout counter; it extends down the supply chain, including to many of the farmworkers who grow the product — the produce that you sell.   

Now, what this means is that that Costco has some of the lowest employee turnover in your industry.  So you’re not constantly retraining folks because they quit. You got people like Teressa who has been here 27 years — because it’s a company that’s looking out for workers.

And I got to tell you, when I walk around, just — I had a little tour of the produce section, the bakery — you could just tell people feel good about their job and they feel good about the company, and you have a good atmosphere, and the managers and people all take pride in what you do.

Now, folks who work at Costco understand that, but there are a lot of Americans who don’t work somewhere like Costco, and they’re working for wages that don’t go as far as they once did. Today, the minimum wage — the federal minimum wage doesn’t even go as far as it did back in the 1950s.  And as the cost of living goes up, the value of the minimum wage goes down over time.  Just last year alone, workers earning the minimum wage basically got the equivalent of a $200 pay cut because the minimum wage stayed the same but costs of everything else are going up.

I don’t need to tell you this. You go shopping.So you’re like, mm-hmm. For a typical minimum-wage worker, that’s a month’s worth of groceries. It’s two months of electricity. It’s a big deal to a lot of families.

So I brought a guy here today who knows a little bit about this — Tom Perez is America’s Secretary of Labor, works for working families every day. I stole him from Governor O’Malley. He came here from Maryland. But when he was Governor O’Malley’s labor secretary here in Maryland, he helped implement the country’s first statewide living wage law. And that helped a lot of Maryland families. But there are more families in Maryland and across the country who put in long days, they’ve got hard jobs — they deserve higher wages.

In the year since I first asked Congress to raise the federal minimum wage, five states have passed laws to raise theirs. Governor O’Malley is trying to do it here in Maryland, and lift the minimum wage to $10.10. He says, “We all do better when we’re all doing better.” He’s right. Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, are banding together with D.C. to raise the regional minimum wage. And I’m here to support your efforts. I’m here to support your efforts. And as I said last night, to every governor, mayor, state legislator out there, if you want to take the initiative to raise your minimum wage laws to help more hardworking Americans make ends meet, then I’m going to be right there at your side.

While Congress decides whether it’s going to raise the minimum wage or not, people outside Washington are not waiting for Congress. And I’m not, either. So as a chief executive, I’m going to lead by example. In the coming weeks, I will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees on new contracts a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour. Because if you cook our troops’ meals and wash their dishes, you shouldn’t have to live in poverty.

So there’s some steps businesses are taking on their own. There are steps that certain states and counties and cities are taking on their own. There are steps I’m going to take as President. But ultimately, Congress does have to do its part to catch up to the rest of the country on this.

And there’s a reason why a wide majority of Americans support increasing the minimum wage.  Look, most Americans who are working make more than the minimum wage. So it’s interesting that the overwhelming number of Americans support raising the minimum wage. It’s not that it’s going to necessarily affect them personally right now; it’s that they know, they understand the value behind the minimum wage. If you work hard, you should be able to pay your rent, buy your groceries, look after your kids. If you put in a hard day’s work, you deserve decent pay for it. That’s a principle everybody understands, everybody believes.

So right now in Congress, there’s a bill that would lift the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour — 10.10 — 10.10, it’s easy. It will give more businesses more customers with more money to spend. I guarantee you, if workers have a little more money in their pocket, they’ll spend more at Costco. And if Costco is seeing more customers, they’ll hire some more folk. Everybody does better.

And the thing about it is raising the minimum wage doesn’t require new spending by the federal government. It doesn’t require a big bureaucratic program. It would help a lot of Americans make ends meet.

So I need everybody here and everybody who’s going to be watching, tell Congress to make this happen.  Give America a raise.  Making work pay means doing more to help Americans all across this country, but it also means improving the economy — because one of the things that’s been holding our economy back is wages and incomes being flat, which means consumers aren’t spending as much, which means businesses don’t have as many customers, which means they don’t hire as much and they don’t invest as much, and we don’t get that liftoff on the economy that we could.

If we want to make work pay, we also have to help Americans save for retirement — and I’m going to be flying up to Pittsburgh this afternoon to talk about that. Making work pay means access to health care that’s there when you get sick. And the Affordable Care Act means nobody can ever be dropped or denied coverage for a preexisting condition like asthma or cancer. You can’t be charged more if you’re a woman. You can’t be charged just because your job makes your back hurt sometimes. Those days are over.   

More Americans are signing up for new private health insurance plans every day. Already 3 million people have signed up. So if you know somebody who isn’t covered, who doesn’t have health insurance, call them up, sit them down, help them get covered at healthcare.gov by March 31st.

So this is the opportunity agenda that I’m going to be talking about this year.  I don’t know — I hope Congress will be talking about it, too. But I’m not going to wait. Because we’ve got to restore some economic security in a 21st century economy, and that means jobs that are more plentiful, skills that are more employable, savings that are more portable, health care that’s yours and can’t be canceled if you get sick.  

I just focused on one piece of that opportunity agenda today — raising the minimum wage. But these are real, practical, achievable solutions that can help shift the odds back in favor of working and middle-class Americans who haven’t been seeing some of the benefits of growth that we’ve seen over the last four years.

And before I grab a 10-pound barrel of pretzels and 500 golf balls, let me just leave you with something I heard from Costco’s founder, Jim Sinegal, who’s been a great friend of mine and somebody who I greatly admire. And Jim is rightly proud of everything he’s accomplished. “But,” he said, “here’s the thing about the Costco story. We did not build our company in a vacuum. We built it in the greatest country on Earth. We built our company in a place where anyone can make it with hard work, a little luck, and a little help from their neighbors and their country.”

That’s what Jim said — a place where anyone can make it. That’s who we are. That’s our story. If we pull together, work together, put our shoulder to the wheel, keep moving forward, that’s going to be our future as well, and the future for our kids and grandkids.————

The following remarks about retirement were made by President Barack Obama at the U.S. Steel Irvin Plant, in West Mifflin, Pa., on Jan. 29, 2014.

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It’s great to be here with the men and women of U.S. Steel. This company helped build America, and over a hundred years later, you’re still at it. You forget the pipes that transport cleaner-burning natural gas. You manufacture the lightweight alloys that our automakers use to build fuel-efficient cars. You’re part of one of the great turnaround stories of this economic recovery, the rebound of the American steel industry. And, look, just every time I go to a steel plant, I remember being a steelworker is hard work. But every single one of you is doing your part to make the country stronger.

Because of your efforts, businesses like U.S. Steel have now created 8 million new jobs over the past four years — 9,000 new jobs in the steel industry alone. Our unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been in more than five years. Our deficits have been cut in half. Housing is rebounding. Manufacturing is adding jobs — not shrinking jobs — for the first time since the 1990s. We sell more of what we make here in America to other parts of the world than ever before. Business leaders are starting to realize that China is no longer the best place to invest and create jobs, America is — the U.S. of A — which is why I said last night I believe this can be a breakthrough year for America.

After five years of hard work, after everything we did to dig ourselves out of the worst recession of our lifetimes, we’re better positioned in this 21st century than any other country on Earth. And the question I posed to Congress yesterday is whether folks in Washington are going to help or they’re going to hinder the progress we’ve been making, whether they’re going to waste time creating new crises that slow down our economy or they’re going to spend time creating new jobs and new opportunities?  

And I don’t know what their plans are, but I choose a year of action. Because too many Americans are working harder than ever just to get by, let alone get ahead. They still have the scars of the recession.  But the truth is the middle class have been taking it on the chin since way before the financial crisis hit. You know that. he economy now has been growing for four years. Corporate profits, stock prices they’ve gone up, but folks’ wages haven’t risen in over a decade.

That’s why, last night, I laid out new steps we can take right now to speed up economic growth, strengthen the middle class and build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class. It’s an opportunity agenda, because opportunity is what America is all about. And the agenda has four parts. Number one, more new jobs — jobs in American manufacturing, jobs in American energy, jobs in American innovation and technology. Number two, we’ve got to train more Americans with the skills that we need to fill those jobs. Number three, we’ve got to guarantee every child in America a world-class education. And number four, we’ve got to make sure hard work pays off.

Now, some of these ideas that I presented last night are going to require Congress to pass legislation. But America doesn’t stand still. U.S. Steel hasn’t stood still. I’m not going to stand still. So wherever I can take steps to expand opportunity for more families, regardless of what Congress does, that’s what I’m going to do because I am determined to work with all of you and citizens all across this country on the defining project of our generation, and that is to restore opportunity for every single person who is willing to work hard and take responsibility in this country. That’s what I’m committed to doing.

I’ve come to U.S. Steel today because I want to talk about the fourth part of that opportunity agenda, making hard work pay off for every single American — making sure jobs pay good wages, making sure affordable health care is there when you need it, making sure that after a lifetime of hard work you can retire with some dignity.

Today, women make up about half our workforce, but they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. As I said last night, that’s wrong. In 2014, it’s an embarrassment. Women deserve equal pay for equal work. They deserve to be able to have a baby without sacrificing a job. Moms and dads deserve to be able to take a day off for a sick kid or a sick parent. We’ve got to get rid of some of these workplace policies that belong back in the ‘50s, back in a “Mad Men” episode, I said. We’ve got to give every woman the opportunity she deserves, because when women succeed, America succeeds.  And I’m really proud that there’s a woman who is heading up this plant and doing some amazing work. So I was really glad to see that.

But women hold the majority of lower-wage jobs. And they’re not the only ones who have been stifled by stagnant wages. The truth is wages and incomes for the average working American haven’t gone up. Even though the economy is more productive, even though it’s grown over the last two decades, the average person’s salary — what they’re taking home, their paycheck — it hasn’t really grown. Now, Americans understand, we all understand some people are going to earn more money than others. And we don’t envy anybody who achieves success through their hard work. That’s what we want for our kids.

Michelle and I were talking. Michelle’s dad was a blue-collar worker, worked at a water filtration plant in Chicago. Her mom was a secretary. My mom was a single mom. When we were growing up, we weren’t worrying about what rich people were doing. We weren’t going around saying, oh, man, we don’t have caviar for lunch and we’re not vacationing down in some fancy place. We don’t begrudge success to other folks. But we did expect — and I think most Americans still expect — that if you work hard, you should be able to make it. You don’t have to make it the way some folks make it, but everybody should have enough to feel some security.

And Americans overwhelmingly agree that nobody who works full-time should ever have to raise a family in poverty. If you’re doing your responsibilities and working hard, you should be able to pay the rent, buy food and look after your family. 

Now, today, the federal minimum wage doesn’t go as far as it did even in the 1950s. That’s why some states and cities are raising their minimum wages on their own. And I support their efforts. And as I mentioned last night, as chief executive, I’m going to lead by example. In the coming weeks, I’m issuing an executive order requiring federal contractors, folks doing business with the federal government, to pay your federally funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour, because if you cook our troops’ meals or you wash their dishes, you shouldn’t have to live in poverty.  

Of course, if we’re going to reach millions more, then Congress is going to have to get on board. There’s a bill in Congress right now to raise that minimum wage to $10.10. And I told Congress, say yes to that. Give America a raise.

But that’s not all we have to do to grow our middle class. Making work pay also means access to health care that’s there for you when you get sick. Now, the good news is if you work here at U.S. Steel, I know you’ve got good benefits. And that’s why I’m a strong supporter of unions, because they fought for those benefits.  

But as everybody here knows — and I’ll bet you’ve got friends and family who haven’t been so lucky and don’t have those benefits. And what the Affordable Care Act means is that no one can ever again be dropped or denied coverage for a preexisting condition like asthma or cancer. You can’t be charged more if you’re a woman. You can’t be charged more just because forging steel might hurt your back, make it hurt sometimes. And if you don’t have health insurance on the job, you can actually get affordable health insurance.

So the days when folks are just on their own, out of luck, those days are over. More Americans are signing up for new private health insurance plans every day. We’re signing folks up for Medicaid. And if you know somebody who isn’t covered, call them up, sit them down, help them get covered at healthcare.gov by March 31st. We are going to get all of America covered. That’s one of my commitments.  

And, finally — and that’s what this little desk here is about — there’s another thing we can all agree on. If you’ve worked hard all your life, you deserve a secure retirement. Some of the folks I met before I came here on the tour, some of these folks have been on the job 15 years, 20 years. I think your roller has been on the job 38 years. Let me tell you something, if you work 38 years, at the end of it you should feel like you’re going to retire with some security.  

And a retirement used to be a three-legged stool, used to have a pension. Then you had your Social Security. Then you had your own private savings. And you put that all together, and you could retire. But today, most workers don’t have a pension in America. Just half work for an employer that offers any kind of retirement plan. A Social Security check is critical, but oftentimes that monthly check, that’s not enough. And while the stock market has doubled over the last five years, that doesn’t help somebody if you don’t have a 401(k).

So what I’ve asked Congress to do is work with me to give more people more retirement security. Let’s fix an upside-down tax code that right now gives the wealthiest Americans big tax breaks to save, but does almost nothing for middle-class folks, doesn’t give them the same kinds of tax advantages. That’s not fair. And we need to give every American access to an automatic IRA on the job, so they can save at work.

Now, I’m hoping that Congress goes along with this, but I’m not going to wait for Congress. I could do more with Congress, but I’m not going to not do anything without Congress, not when it’s about the basic security and dignity of American workers. So here’s what I’m going to do today. This is what this little table is set up for. I’m going to sign a presidential memorandum that directs the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, to create a new way for working Americans to start their own retirement savings.  And as soon as I sign this, Jack Lew will get the memo. He is right here. So I’m going to be able to just — here, here’s your memo.

And we’re calling it “MyRA.” Not IRA — MyRA. And what it is, it’s a new type of savings bond that we can set up without legislation that encourages Americans to begin to build a nest egg. And it’s simple. Workers can contribute through automatic deductions in their paychecks, just like those of you who have an employer-sponsored pension fund can do. They can keep the same account even if they change jobs, so they can carry it over. It’s safe. These account balances will never go down in value. They’re backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. And it’s affordable. So you can open an account with as little as $25. You can contribute as little as $5 at a time.

But what that means is for those of you who don’t have a 401(k) on the job, don’t have a pension on the job, don’t have a mechanism to start saving — especially younger workers — you can get started now. And in an emergency, you can withdraw contributions without paying a penalty. So it’s a pretty good deal.  And what I’m hoping is that working Americans will take a look, because I want more people to have the chance to save for retirement through their hard work. And this is just one step that we can take to help more people do that.

So this is the opportunity agenda that’s going to help restore some sense of economic security in this 21st century economy. We want jobs that are more plentiful. We want skills that keep you employable. We want savings that are portable. We want health care that’s yours and that’s not going to be canceled when you really need it. We want every American who works hard and takes responsibility to retire with dignity after decades of honest work. These are real, practical, achievable solutions to help shift the odds back a little bit in favor of more working and middle-class Americans, so that if they work hard, they can get ahead and they can leave something for the next generation.

And that’s something that U.S. Steel knows a little bit about. For over a hundred years, people throughout the Mon Valley and across this country have been punching in at plants just like this one. You’ve been keeping the furnaces blasting, keeping the cold mill rolling, carrying on the tradition of hard work and determination. We’ve got two, three-generation steel workers at this plant right here. And I know for a lot of you, this is more than a job. This is a team. This is a family that you’re proud to be a part of.

Robin Birk is with me today. Decades ago, her granddad worked for Union Switch and Signal in Pittsburgh, making parts for railroads. Her dad worked for U.S. Steel for over 30 years, rising to plant manager. Robin’s been a safety manager here for 23 years. And I want to share something Robin said. She said, “When I was growing up, I would think about what my grandfather and father did for a living, and I always thought my brother would be the one who got to work here. But it ended up being me. Women before me maybe didn’t have that opportunity.”

Now, Robin’s dad, Bernard, who just passed away a little more than a year ago, he was full of pride for this company. He used to say, “When we bleed, we bleed blue” — the color of U.S. Steel.

So that pride has run across generation. That’s the pride that built this company. And that’s the pride that built America. That’s the spirit we all need today. That’s the resilience, the grit, the determination, and the optimism that keeps the American Dream alive not just for this generation, but for future generations to come.

That’s what I’m going to be fighting for this year, just like I was for the last five years and for the next three years. And I expect all of you to join me in making sure that we deliver that promise to the next generation.    

And now, I’m going to sign this bill. Thank you. God bless you. God bless the United States of America.