Labor secretary says increase in minimum wage is crucial
He also puts spotlight on job training during his daylong visit to Houston
The nation’s labor secretary began his daylong trip to Houston over empanadas and coffee at the table of a local union leader. The conversation covered the struggles low-wage workers face and the policy options that could address them, like the ongoing effort to increase the federal minimum wage.
For more than an hour Tuesday morning, Thomas Perez conversed with Austraberta Rodriguez, vice president of the Service Employees International Union Texas, four other lowwage workers and Democratic U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. He listened to stories of holding down jobs without health care or paid sick time and often struggling to make ends meet.
“I think there are remarkable opportunities here in Houston for employers to grow and for workers to punch their ticket to the middle class,” he said. “At the same time there are, in Houston and really, across the country, there are too many people living in the shadows for whom opportunity remains elusive. And it’s up to us — not simply as government but it’s up to partnerships of business, government at all levels, educators and nonprofits and individuals themselves — to move forward.”
Specifically, Perez said in a later interview, boosting the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would benefit more than 2 million workers in Texas. He said those workers in turn would spend that extra money
in the local economy.
Later in the day, he addressed business leaders at a luncheon coordinated by the Greater Houston Partnership in the local office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The conversation partly focused on the shared goal of building up the nation’s skilled workforce.
Part of the challenge, Perez said, is to change the perception of skilled labor and not discount jobs that don’t require college degrees.
There are job opportunities in the skilled trades, Perez said, but many parents would prefer their kids attend college. He said apprenticeships have been devalued, and there needs to be a shift to include more apprenticeship opportunities for people of color and women. He stressed the importance of partnerships between unions and business leaders, between employers and community colleges, and among other stakeholders.
Industry-led program
The Greater Houston Partnership discussed its program UpSkill Houston, an industry-led initiative to address challenges regional employers face in finding talent they need to fill the estimated 1.4 million middle-skills jobs, a largely blue-collar sector that the partnership says includes construction, transportation and production. Gina Luna, who chairs that initiative for the partnership, said industry can play a role in bridging the skills gap.
“We’re also working to alter the perceptions on what it means to be a middle skilled professional,” Luna said.
Perez also joined Mayor Annise Parker to visit a local program called YouthBuild Houston, which helps people earn a high school equivalency degree while also learning a skilled trade. They met with participants ranging in age from 16 to 24.
“I see my kids when I see you,” said Perez, a father of three. “I believe that every person is gifted and talented.”
Areas for improvement
Throughout the day, Perez repeated that Hous- ton has had a lot of success but also has areas to improve. He said he wants to make sure every person benefits from the overall growth.
“One of the abiding principles of workforce creation here, and continuing economic development, is that there’s no such thing as a spare Houstonian,” he said.
Perez wrapped up his day meeting with he Houston Chronicle’s editorial board and then joining U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, at San Jacinto College to check out its craft trades, health care, and information security and technology programs.