Just happy to be out of class. (Applause.) I'm sure that's not true. I'm sure these are

all outstanding students. (Applause.) Good to see you.

First of all, give Mira a big round of applause for the great introduction. (Applause.) I

want to say thanks to your president, Mary Sue Coleman, for her years of outstanding

leadership here at Michigan. (Applause.) We've got a few other Michigan leaders who are here

today. We've got Congressman John Conyers. (Applause.) We've got Congressman Gary Peters.

(Applause.) We've got your mayor, John Hieftje. (Applause.) Former Congressman Mark Schauer.

(Applause.) Your Congressman, the legendary John Dingell, could not make it, but his wife

Debbie is here. Give her a big round of applause. (Applause.)

Now, most importantly I know to all of you, we've got some Wolverines in the house here.

(Applause.) We've got Greg Robinson III. (Applause.) We've got Jordan Morgan. (Applause.) We've

got Big Ten Player of the Year, Nik Stauskas. (Applause.) And we've got quarterback, Devin

Gardner. (Applause.) These guys were outstanding this year. Give them a bigger round of applause

than that. (Applause.)

You guys had a great run. That last game was as good of a game as we've seen the entire

season. I know you wish that that turned out a little bit later -- if you'd had five more

seconds, it would have been helpful. (Laughter.) But I wanted to congratulate the coach, Coach

Beilein, and the team for a great season. (Applause.)

And I understand that Jordan wanted me to talk about my bracket. (Laughter.) My bracket

is a mess. (Laughter.) I've learned my lesson -- I will not pick against the Wolverines.

(Applause.) It's not going to happen. This is the problem with doing these brackets -- people

just trash-talk you non-stop. (Laughter.) It's terrible.

And I think it's worth mentioning, I want to congratulate Jordan for playing more games

at Michigan than any other player in history -- not only earning an undergraduate degree

in engineering -- (applause) -- pursuing a graduate degree in engineering as well. That's

the kind of student athlete we're talking about. (Applause.)

Now, do some of you guys have chairs? Because if you've got chairs, feel free to sit down.

But if you don't, don't sit down, because I don't want you getting hurt.

Before I came here today, I stopped at Zingerman's, which is the -- (applause) -- which is the

right thing to do when you're in Ann Arbor. (Laughter.) I stopped for two reasons. The

first is the Reuben is killer. (Laughter.) So I ordered like the small -- (laughter)

-- and it didn't look that small. So I gave half to Valerie Jarrett, who's traveling with

us. And then after I finished the half, I wanted the half back. (Laughter.) But it was

too late. All she had left was the pickle. (Laughter.) So I took the pickle. (Laughter.)

So one of the reasons I went was because the sandwiches are outstanding. The second reason,

though, is Zingerman's is a business that treats its workers well, and rewards honest

work with honest wages. (Applause.) And that's worth celebrating. And that's what I'm here

to talk about today: How do we rebuild an economy that creates jobs and opportunities

for every American? And I want to focus on something a lot of people in Michigan are

working very hard to accomplish right now, and that is raising the minimum wage to help

more folks get ahead. (Applause.)

Now, here's the context. Our economy is doing better. It's growing. Our businesses are creating

jobs -- 8.7 million new jobs over the past four years. (Applause.) Our manufacturing

sector, which had been losing jobs throughout the '90s and throughout the -- what do you

call it -- aughts? (Laughter.) You know, the 2000 to 2010, whatever you call that. (Laughter.)

But manufacturing had been losing jobs -- about a third of manufacturing had lost -- and obviously

that hit Michigan really hard. But we're now seeing the manufacturing sector add jobs for

the first time since the 1990s. So that is good news. (Applause.)

The housing market is recovering. Obviously the stock market has recovered, which means

people's 401(k)s, if they have them, are doing a lot better.

Troops that were fighting two wars, they're coming home. (Applause.) We just went through

the first month since 2003 where no U.S. soldier was killed in either Afghanistan or Iraq.

(Applause.)

Today you've got companies looking to invest in the U.S. instead of sending jobs overseas.

They want to create more jobs and invest right here in the United States. We're more competitive.

We're more productive.

Oh, and by the way, 7.1 million Americans have now signed up for coverage through the

Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. (Applause.) That's a lot of people -- 7.1.

That's enough to fill up The Big House 65 times. (Applause.) And by the way, that doesn't

count the more than 3 million young people who have been able to stay on their parents'

plans. (Applause.) So we have seniors here who graduate and then it may take a couple

months to find a job, or you're doing an internship or something that does not provide health

care, you're going to be covered until you get that job that actually provides health

insurance. So it provides you the kind of protection you need. (Applause.)

So that's the good news. We fought back from the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes.

We've laid the foundation for America's future growth. But here's the problem: There's been

a long-term trend that has really been hitting middle-class folks and folks trying to get

into the middle class, and that's been going on since before most of you were born. The

economy increasingly has folks at the top doing really well, but then middle-class families,

people who are struggling to get into the middle class, they're working harder, but

their wages, their incomes aren't going up.

And we're a better country than that. In America, we do not believe in opportunity just for

the few. We believe that everybody should have a chance at success. Everybody. (Applause.)

And we believe our economy grows best not from the top down, but from the middle out,

and from the bottom up. (Applause.) And we want to make sure that no matter where you're

born, what circumstances, how you started out, what you look like, what your last name

is, who you love -- it doesn't matter, you can succeed. That's what we believe. (Applause.)

We believe that what matters is the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams

and our willingness to take responsibility for ourselves, but also for ourselves. That's

what America is about. That's the promise that this country is built on. And for the

sake of your generation, we got to make sure that that continues to be the case; that that's

not just something we're nostalgic about; that that's something that we project out

into the future.

So I had a State of the Union a while back and I laid out a four-part Opportunity Agenda

to make sure everybody has a shot. And that starts with something I know graduating seniors

are thinking about: More good jobs paying good wages; jobs in high-tech and manufacturing

and energy and innovation. And there are things we can do to create jobs -- rebuilding our

infrastructure in this country, investing in R&D, closing wasteful loopholes that don't

create jobs. So we're providing tax breaks to companies that are creating jobs right

here in the United States. Those are things we can do right now.

Opportunity means training more Americans for the skills needed to fill those jobs.

We got to make sure everybody is ready with the skills they need. Not everybody is going

to be lucky enough to be a Wolverine and graduate from Michigan. (Applause.) But everybody can

get a good, solid base so that they can have a job and a career.

Opportunity means guaranteeing every young people access to a world-class education,

and that's got to start with pre-K, all the way through higher education. (Applause.)

And it means making college more affordable. (Applause.)

Some of you may not know this, but before a lot of you even entered college, we took

on the student loan system. It was giving billions of taxpayer dollars to big banks

to serve as middlemen in the student loan process. We said, why do we need the banks?

We cut them out. We used the savings that were generated, billions of dollars, to expand

the grants that help millions of low-income students pay for college. And we're offering

millions of students who are graduating the chance to cap monthly student loan payments

at 10 percent of your income. (Applause.)

This is something you need to talk to your counselors about, especially if you're going

into teaching or social work, or other professions where it's a passion but you're not going

to be an investment banker salary situation. So make sure you find out about this. You

can cap -- I mean, I know Stauskas has got the contract coming up, so he'll -- (laughter)

-- he doesn't have to worry about these things. But I'm saying later -- I'm not telling him

to leave. (Laughter.) I wasn't editorializing on that. (Laughter.)

My point is we got to make sure that everybody can afford to do things that may not pay huge

sums of money but are really valuable to society.

And the good news is more young people are earning college degrees than ever before.

But we've still got to do more work to rein in tuition costs. I talked to your president

about this. And we got to help more students who are trapped by student loan debt -- because

this country cannot afford striving young people to be priced out of a higher education.

Everybody has got to be able to afford it. (Applause.)

Finally, opportunity means rewarding the hard work of every American -- not just some Americans,

every American. That means making sure that folks are paid equal for doing equal work.

(Applause.) I do not want my daughters paid less than somebody else's sons for doing the

same job. (Applause.)

It means making sure that there are decent benefits and, at minimum, that every American

has access to quality, affordable health insurance. It means paychecks and wages that allow you

to support a family.

All of which brings me back to this issue of the minimum wage, giving America a raise.

Now, raising the minimum wage is not going to solve all of our economic challenges. The

majority of folks who are working get paid more than the minimum wage. As Americans we

understand that some people will earn more than others. But here's one thing we do believe:

Nobody who works full-time should be raising their family in poverty, right? (Applause.)

If you're working, if you're responsible, you should be able to pay the rent, pay the

bills. (Applause.)

But that's what's happening right now. All across the country, you can work full-time

on the minimum wage and still be in poverty. And that's why, in the year since I first

asked Congress to raise the minimum wage, we've seen six states on their own pass laws

to raise their minimum wage. Last week, Connecticut became the first state in the country to raise

its minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. (Applause.) Congratulations, Connecticut.

You've got more states and counties and cities that are working to raise their minimum wage

as we speak. That includes your state legislators from Ann Arbor -- Adam Zemke and Jeff Irwin

-- who are trying to raise it here in Michigan. (Applause.) We're proud of them. Stand up,

guys. Come on. There they are. (Applause.) See, I used to be in the state legislature,

so I was kind of partial to -- (laughter.)

But raising wages is not just a job for organizers, it's not just a job for elected officials,

it's also a job for business. It was here in Michigan 100 years ago that Henry Ford

announced he was doubling his workers' wages. And at the time, some of his fellow business

leaders thought he had lost his mind. But Henry Ford understood it was going to be good

for business. Not only did it boost productivity, not only did it reduce turnover, not only

did it make employees more loyal to the company, but it meant that the workers could afford

to buy the cars that they were building. (Applause.) So you were building -- so by paying your

workers more, you were building your own market for your products.

And hugely successful companies today, like Costco, they take the same approach. And it's

not just big businesses; small businesses, too. In my State of the Union address, I called

on more business leaders to boost their employees' wages, give them a fair wage. And since then,

you've seen businesses across the country -- small ones, like an ice cream parlor in

Florida, to a marketing agency in Georgia, to a pizzeria in St. Louis -- they've all

said, you know what, this is the right thing to do.

Recently, the Gap decided to raise its base wages, and that benefited about 65,000 workers

in the United States -- and it led me to go shopping at Gap. (Laughter and applause.)

Some of you may have seen the very attractive sweaters that I purchased for my daughters.

(Laughter.) They have not worn them yet, so if they're listening, make me feel good, just

wear it one time. (Laughter.)

Now, Zingerman's does not have as many workers as the Gap, obviously, but they try to do

right by each and every one of them. You've got some big businesses who go to Washington

to lobby for special treatment for themselves. So one of Zingerman's owners, Paul Saginaw,

flew to D.C. to lobby for his workers, to lobby for better treatment for workers through

a higher minimum wage. (Applause.) That's the kind of folks who are running Zingerman's.

Then afterwards, he held a sandwich summit here in Ann Arbor to help build support for

Michigan's minimum wage going up. And Paul's point is simple: Fair wages and higher profits

are not mutually exclusive; they can go hand-in-hand. That's what Henry Ford understood. And Paul

opened Zingerman's doors 32 years ago last month so he knows a little bit about business.

But he and business owners like him believe higher wages are good for the bottom line.

I happen to believe the same thing. So I decided several months ago that the federal government

should follow their lead. And so I issued an executive order that requires federal contractors,

folks who are doing business with the government, to pay their employees on new contracts a

fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour. It's the right thing to do. (Applause.)