Employment Standards Quotes

We must draw ahead of Europe on the question of labor, and we must set the example.

I think the minimum wage will be the centerpiece of the State of Union. I think it should be the centerpiece of the State of the Union. And it should be very focused on that because, as you said, Republicans in the rest of the country are for it.

I think the time has come when the American people understand that federal employees need to work an 8-hour day just like everybody else.

I first came into the labor force in 1941 when the minimum wage was 40 cents an hour, and that was my first job. And each time that we've tried to boost the lower level of salary for the most underpaid workers, there have been predictions of catastrophe. But each time, in [m]y opinion, the change has helped our Nation and its economic strength.

If you're fighting against a minimum wage increase, you're fighting an uphill battle, because most Americans, even most Republicans, are okay with raising the minimum wage.

The labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce.

What characteristics do I look for when hiring somebody? That's one of the questions I ask when interviewing. I want to know what kind of people they would hire.

Charlie Sheen called his boss on 'Two and a Half Men' a 'Jew ki**' and expected to go back to work. That’s crazy. If you could do that and keep your job, then everybody would do it.

The principle of acting in good faith is at the heart of decent work.

Yet it ought to be clear that a minimum wage law is, at best, a limited weapon for combatting the evil of low wages, and that the possible good to be achieved by such a law can exceed the possible harm only in proportion as its aims are mode.

Do not worry about the side agreements on labor. They are too full of loopholes to pose any threat.

Fast food workers are all the governor has power to enact. Your state legislature is held hostage by the same nitwits that hold hostage the federal [government]. People who have confused suffocating collectivism, which is bad, for a necessity to solve collective action problems, which is what all human endeavor is based on.

All we want the Labor Secretary to do is enforce the law and protect workers’ rights.

President Obama wants Congress to increase the minimum wage. Believe me, when it comes to doing the minimum for their wage, Congress knows what it's talking about.

America is the only developed nation in the world with no guaranteed paid leave of any kind. That means we're leaving a whole lot of talent on the sidelines.

The woman who works for a dollar a day has as much right as any other human being to say what the conditions of her work should be.

Formerly when a man worked ten hours a day, it was called economic slavery; nowadays it is called moonlighting.

An employer has no business with a man's personality... The task is not to change personality, but to enable a person to achieve and to perform.

The labor movement was the principal force that transforme­d misery and despair into hope and progress.

Being a working person who works for the studios. It's a minefield and there's tons of stuff you need to know. And people mess it up all the time.

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

We should raise the national minimum wage.

But just because we can't fix Obamacare doesn't mean we can't start to get rid of its worst features. On Thursday, the House will take up a bill to define 'full time' as 40 hours per week, so more people can work full time.

American workers are first rate.

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