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.
The overtime rule was frankly diluted in 2004 by a regulation put in place by the Bush administration.
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.
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.
Discrimination is not a national defense strategy!
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.
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?'
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
A secure retirement is one of the pillars of middle class life. For all too many Americans, however, that pillar needs more support.
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.
Workers are most likely to save for retirement if they have access to a workplace savings plan and are automatically enrolled in that plan.
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.
When the federal government imposes a mandate on the states or supersedes a state policy, conservatives often rise in protest.
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.
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.
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.
My parents didn't feel that they had any choice but to leave the Dominican Republic. They did, however, choose to become Americans, and they lived American values every day.
Years after my parents made the United States their home, I had the joy of traveling to the Dominican Republic with my kids. They saw where it all started and how their grandparents' values survived and thrived in America.
Companies are recognizing that paid leave reduces training and turnover costs, that it's a formula for recruiting and retaining good workers.
Change very often comes to Washington, not from Washington.
One of the most pervasive and damaging trends we are seeing in the 21st-century workplace is the deliberate misclassification of workers by employers looking to shift responsibility and cut costs.
Our message in rural America is just as powerful as it is in urban America. But because we haven't been a physical presence there in any sustained way, we have a lot of voters there who no longer believe that the Democratic Party is working for them.
Donald Trump has shown no interest in working toward increasing the minimum wage, no interest in doing anything but immigrant baiting, no interest in doing anything but filling the swamp with a band of billionaires who are simply trying to help the wealthy.
We believe that health care is a right, not a privilege.
I've said that we need to elect Democrats from the school board to the Senate.
Our message of opportunity and inclusion is, I think, a very powerful message that does indeed speak to Americans, but we've got to do a better job of listening.
Organizing has to be a 12-month endeavor.
You can't show up at a church every 4 October and say, 'Vote for me,' and call that persuasion.
Donald Trump's vision of America, his nativist vision of America, his fear mongering - that's what we have to fight.
Trust is not something that's given because you win an election; it's something you have to earn.
I met a person on my rural tour in northwest Wisconsin who said to me, 'I feel politically homeless.' And we need to re-engage that person.
I think our big tent is our greatest strength.
If Donald Trump wants to raise the minimum wage to $15, yes, I will work with Donald Trump.
If Donald Trump wants to acknowledge that we have a pay gap for women and we need to address it, I would work with Donald Trump.
If Donald Trump wants to pass comprehensive immigration reform, I will work with Donald Trump.
The Democratic Party and DNC have to be a very conspicuous face of the opposition to Donald Trump and all his divisiveness. At the same time, we have to communicate our, I think, positive and inclusive message to everyone.
Joe Arpaio built a wall. His was a wall of distrust, and when you don't have the trust of the community, you don't have anything. He claimed to be a law-and-order sheriff, but he was really lawlessness and disorder.
When my grandchildren ask, 'Where were you when Donald Trump took a sledgehammer to Lady Liberty?' I want to make sure I can tell them I was there protecting America.
We need bold leadership to bring America back to its first principles of diversity inclusion and opportunity for everyone in every ZIP Code, and music is that vehicle to summon our better angels. Music is that vehicle and always has been a vehicle to challenge us to build a better America.
I've memorized 'Hamilton.'
We're at our best when we put hope in front of fear.
Our message has been muddled, especially in 2016. Voters in Ohio heard from Trump, 'I'm going to save your coal jobs.' And while that was a lie, what it told them is, 'I'm going to feel your pain.' What they heard from the Democratic side was, 'Vote for us because Donald Trump is crazy.'
I happen to think Donald Trump is crazy, but that's not an economic message.