Thomas Perez Quotes

#1. I've had jobs that allow me the flexibility to achieve work-life balance, to be there when one of the kids sinks a jump shot or for the parent-teacher meetings. I can move tasks around. If I don't get something done at the office at 4:30 in the afternoon, I can go back to it at 10:00 in the evening.

Thomas Perez

#2. To fulfill the promise of economic opportunity, we must remain true to the principle that collective bargaining is a cornerstone of a free society and indispensable to a strong middle class.

Thomas Perez

#3. From the outset, the Obama administration has recognized that building a robust skills infrastructure means building strong partnerships with community colleges.

Thomas Perez

#4. We need to be focused in corporate America on the long term.

Thomas Perez

#5. There are just way too many people suffering out there.

Thomas Perez

#6. I had the luxury of skipping the cabinet meeting to attend my daughter's graduation. So many people don't have the luxury of taking an hour away from the workplace to attend indispensable family commitments. We have to change that dynamic.

Thomas Perez

#7. Nobody who works 40 hours a week should have to live in poverty.

Thomas Perez

#8. It stands to reason: Higher wages means higher loyalty and morale, which means higher productivity, which means a more profitable business.

Thomas Perez

#9. President Obama has made a minimum wage increase a focal point of his economic agenda.

Thomas Perez

#10. What my parents taught me was that the hallmark of a thriving democracy was an effective and respectful police force.

Thomas Perez

#11. Apprenticeships are a particularly effective way to create career pathways with upward mobility and strong earning potential. Because apprentices receive a paycheck, it's a great option for those with families to support, including many veterans.

Thomas Perez

#12. Our workforce and our entire economy are strongest when we embrace diversity to its fullest, and that means opening doors of opportunity to everyone and recognizing that the American Dream excludes no one.

Thomas Perez

#13. I'm often accused of hiring people with civil rights experience, and I do plead guilty to that.

Thomas Perez

#14. The employers who do best are employers who reject these false choices. It's not a zero-sum world where you either take care of your workers or you take care of your shareholders. You can do good and do well, too.

Thomas Perez

#15. 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!

Thomas Perez

#16. 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.

Thomas Perez

#17. The typical minimum wage earner is a provider and a breadwinner - most likely a woman - responsible for paying bills, running a household and raising children.

Thomas Perez

#18. 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.

Thomas Perez

#19. President Obama believes that income inequality is one of the most pressing matters facing the nation. If we are going to be a country that provides ladders of opportunity and believes in a thriving middle class, then we have to raise the minimum wage.

Thomas Perez

#20. One of the best ways to grow this economy is to put money in people's pockets.

Thomas Perez

#21. On Veterans Day, I can't help think of my uncles who volunteered for the service after fleeing a brutal regime in the Dominican Republic. They hadn't been in America long, but they were already so grateful for its opportunities that they were eager to serve.

Thomas Perez

#22. There's a long bipartisan tradition of civil rights enforcement.

Thomas Perez

#23. I'm proud to be Secretary of Labor. But I'm even prouder of two more important titles: dad and husband. I've been able to be all three. I want all working people, no matter what their jobs are, to be able to meet their obligations both at work and at home.

Thomas Perez

#24. 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.

Thomas Perez

#25. In terms of intellectual property, so many of the job creators I know are start-ups. In the IP setting, we can meaningfully improve on the status quo, and in so doing, we can help small businesses, large businesses, and those in between.

Thomas Perez

#26. The labor movement is our brother's keeper! The labor movement is our sister's keeper!

Thomas Perez

#27. Protecting the rights of service members was an important part of my work as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

Thomas Perez

#28. People have choices. They are going to vote with their feet.

Thomas Perez

#29. Community colleges provide higher education where people live, helping to build strong ladders of opportunity that allow people to secure a foothold in the middle class.

Thomas Perez

#30. There's a myth out there that you have to genuflect at the altar of quarterly earnings. But it's a false choice that you can either be a good fiduciary or promote values such as environmental sustainability.

Thomas Perez

#31. Hillary Clinton is about 'we.' Donald Trump is about 'me.'

Thomas Perez

#32. I like to call the Department of Labor the Department of Opportunity, and that means opportunity for everyone - no matter whom you love.

Thomas Perez

#33. We are indeed a nation of immigrants. People who choose to come to America have always been one of our greatest sources of national vitality. They keep our economy strong and our communities dynamic. They are some of our greatest patriots.

Thomas Perez

#34. How do we make sure that rising tides lift all boats and not just the yachts?

Thomas Perez

#35. Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 will benefit about 28 million workers across the country. And it will help businesses, too - raising the wage will put more money in people's pockets, which they will pump back into the economy by spending it on goods and services in their communities.

Thomas Perez

#36. It is not possible that it is God's will that women are making 77 cents on a dollar.

Thomas Perez

#37. Involvement in my kids' sports teams is something I have made time for over the years. I've also been able to coach all three of them in baseball and basketball, something that has strengthened our bonds and given me indescribable joy. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Thomas Perez

#38. When we lift the wage floor, it not only betters the lives of those whose wages are directly affected, it also lifts the economy as a whole.

Thomas Perez

#39. My parents, fleeing a repressive regime in the Dominican Republic, were embraced by this country and taught us to love it in return. After my father served proudly in the U.S. Army, they settled in Buffalo, N.Y., and were able to live the American Dream.

Thomas Perez

#40. People who work full-time in America should not have to live in poverty - simple as that. Too many jobs don't pay enough to get by, let alone get ahead. Too many people are finding the rungs on the ladder of opportunity further and further apart.

Thomas Perez

#41. Mandatory arbitration clauses I think, more often than not, work to the detriment of working people.

Thomas Perez

#42. It was a privilege to serve as the assistant attorney general for civil rights, a role that allowed me to enforce the Civil Rights Act and help make its promise a reality.

Thomas Perez

#43. 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.

Thomas Perez

#44. The differences between Secretary Clinton and Donald Trump in terms of temperament, in terms of values, couldn't be more stark.

Thomas Perez

#45. Workers are baking the pie of prosperity, but they're not sharing in those dividends. That's unfair.

Thomas Perez

#46. Labor Day 2013 is special. This year marks the centennial of the U.S. Department of Labor - 100 years of working for America's workers.

Thomas Perez

#47. Full-time workers earning the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 only earn about $14,500 a year in wages - below the poverty line for a family of two. That's unacceptable.

Thomas Perez

#48. Workers all too frequently have been taking it on the chin. They're working hard and falling behind, all too frequently.

Thomas Perez

#49. 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.

Thomas Perez

#50. We have to bake labor provisions into the core of an agreement. TPP would do that. Under NAFTA, countries had to simply promise to uphold the laws of their own nations.

Thomas Perez

#51. The Labor Department's Hall of Honor recognizes men and women - like Cesar Chavez, Helen Keller and the Workers of the Memphis Sanitation Strike - who have made invaluable contributions to the welfare of American workers.

Thomas Perez

#52. When you put more money in the pockets of working families, they spend it on groceries, gas, school supplies, and other goods and services. And that helps businesses grow and create jobs. So many forward-looking employers, large and small, understand this.

Thomas Perez

#53. Raising the minimum wage isn't just pro-worker; it's pro-economic growth.

Thomas Perez

#54. If the opponents of an increase in the minimum wage were correct, then every time you fly to Seattle, you've got to bring a bagged lunch because there shouldn't be any restaurants because they should have all have gone out of business as a result of raising the minimum wage.

Thomas Perez

#55. In the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works a full time job should have to live in poverty. That's a fundamental value proposition, an article of faith in our country that I know an overwhelming majority of Americans agree on.

Thomas Perez

#56. I believe we're making a mistake if we regard job creation and job safety as mutually exclusive or inherently in conflict; they can and they must go hand-in-hand.

Thomas Perez

#57. I met a woman working 30 hours a week, trying to make ends meet, three children. And she slept the night before I met her in her car because she's homeless. We can do better. We can build a nation of shared prosperity.

Thomas Perez

#58. Employers have recognized for some time that it's smart business to have a diverse workforce - one in which many views are represented and everyone's talents are valued. Well, disability is part of diversity.

Thomas Perez

#59. Post-military service can be a period of anxiety and uncertainty. So many men and women return and ask themselves: what now? The Labor Department is here to help answer that question with an array of programs designed to clear pathways into the middle class.

Thomas Perez

#60. 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.

Thomas Perez

#61. We're building a movement. It's undeniably a work in progress, but there's a fundamental desire to see capitalism to do something different.

Thomas Perez

#62. On July 2, 1964, President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act. Its enactment, following the longest continuous debate in the history of the U.S. Senate, enshrined into law the basic principle upon which our country was founded - that all people are created equal.

Thomas Perez

#63. People believe mistakenly, that with death comes atonement, when in reality, life is for atonement and Death is for Judgment.

Thomas Perez