Zingerman's Delicatessen: Making Capitalism Work For The Working Class

Paul Saginaw, co-founder of Zingerman's Deli in Michigan, pays his 630 employees up to $21/hour, offers health and dental benefits to all workers, provides paid time off, and 401k retirement plans. This week, Mr. Saginaw is in Washington lobbying Congress and the restaurant industry to raise wages for all workers.

by Jeremy Allen

January 27, 2014

Paul Saginaw, the co-owner of Zingerman’s Delicatessen, displayed strong support for low-wage workers recently when he made a trek to Washington, D.C., to lobby for an increase in the minimum wage.

Saginaw joined business owners from Colorado, New York, Maryland and Washington, D.C., to lobby U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez. The business owners talked about the positive impacts of paying employees a higher wage than the government minimum of $7.25 per hour.

“We’ve grown since opening Zingerman’s Delicatessen almost 32 years ago to eight businesses in Ann Arbor employing 625 permanent staff with revenues just under $50 million dollars,” Saginaw said in a Jan. 23 roundtable discussion with the other business owners.

“Paying entry wages our employees can live on has contributed to our profitability and our annual compounded growth rate of 10 percent. Raising the minimum wage is long overdue.”

Perez is also in favor of increasing the minimum pay for workers.

He said that paying a higher wage doesn’t just benefit the workers, but ultimately the employers also see benefits from paying what Saginaw calls a “thrive-able wage.”

Zingerman's co-founder Paul Saginaw.Ryan J. Stanton | MLive.com

“What I heard from these men and women who run small businesses is that when you put more money in workers’ pockets, they stay on the job longer which reduces turnover and training costs,” Perez said in the meeting.

“Additionally, those workers spend that extra income at local businesses in their communities, which benefits the overall economy. It's really that simple.”

The business leaders attending the Roundtable want Congress to pass the Fair Minimum Wage Act, which would gradually raise the federal minimum wage in to $10.10 and then provide for annual cost-of-living adjustments.

Hundreds of other business owners and executives across the country have signed an open petition, which can be found here.