I Jim Sinegal

Who the heck is Jim Sinegal? He's the CEO and founder of Costco, who "yesterday became the most prominent member of a new organization of business owners and executives pressing Congress to approve an increase in the federal minimum wage."

"The more people make, the better lives they're going to have and the better consumers they're going to be," Sinegal said in an interview. "It's going to provide better jobs and better wages."

…Sinegal is one of dozens of business owners and executives who … are lending their voices to an effort called Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, a project of Business for Shared Prosperity, an organization of "forward-thinking business owners, executives and investors committed to building enduring economic progress on a strong foundation of opportunity, equity and innovation," according to the organization's Web site.

…Costco, of Issaquah, Wash., would suffer no direct impact from a higher minimum wage because its lowest-paid employees now make about $11 an hour, Sinegal said, adding that the average worker in the company's 504 stores in the United States makes $17 an hour.

Costco is the nation's largest wholesale club. That may suggest progressive economics aren't the impediment to progress conservatives would have us believe. Ahem.