That was meant to be a joke, but with Andrew Puzder’s rumored appointment to head the Dept. of Labor it’s looking pretty real. Puzder runs CKE Inc, which owns, operates and franchises Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s restaurants. The fast-food industry as a whole is associated with low-pay, wage theft and other labor violations.
Bloomberg News analysed the results of DoL investigations into fast-food franchises and found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act 75% of the time.
Over the course of the Obama administration, the WHD (Wage and Hour Division) has conducted nearly 4,000 investigations at the 20 largest fast-food brands combined, leading to discovery of more than 68,000 FLSA violations and some $14 million in back wages recovered for about 57,000 employees, a review of WHD enforcement data found. And that’s not counting liquidated damages paid to employees, a figure not tracked on the division’s public enforcement database.
Three-quarters of investigations at the top 20 companies uncovered at least one FLSA violation.
So, in three out of four investigations, the store was violating national labor standards. For Carl’s Jr. And Hardee’s the figure was 60%. 6 out of 10 their restaurants had labor violations. As to why this might be:
“When you’re in a low-margin business like fast food, there’s always going to be pressure to find ways to cut costs,” said Hancock, who was the WHD’s assistant administrator for policy until February 2015. “Part of what’s driving noncompliance is that at the ground level, these managers are given a labor budget” that is unnecessarily low and “that pushes them in some cases to cheat.”
How tough do you think a former fast-food company CEO is going to be on labor enforcement?
Puzder opposes a higher minimum wage, overtime pay, and health-care mandates:
Mr. Puzder has spent his career in the private sector and has opposed efforts to expand eligibility for overtime pay, while arguing that large minimum wage increases hurt small businesses and lead to job loss among low-skilled workers.
He strongly supports repealing the Affordable Care Act, which he maintains has helped create a “restaurant recession” because rising premiums have left middle- and working-class people with less money to spend dining out.
Let that last one sink in for a moment.
Puzder opposes health care for people because it prevents them from eating demonstrably unhealthy offerings at fast-food restaurants.
Puzder opposes the ACA’s employer mandate. He’d like to be “free” to pay non-overtime, poverty wages without benefits to employees who can then be foisted on public assistance and Medicaid. The average fast-food worker is 29 years old, only 13% of them get health-insurance through work, and half of them utilize some welfare program. This costs tax-payers over $7 billion. Meanwhile, CKE paid Puzder $4.5 million in 2012.
Back when he was an “adviser” to Romney, he opposed the Obama administration’s extension of overtime pay to lowly-paid “executives” in name only (assistant managers at fast-food chains who made 24,000 to 36,000).
So this guy will follow in the footsteps of the first Labor secretary:
William B. Wilson (April 2, 1862-May 25, 1934) comes to the U.S. at age 8. A year later, he works as a “breaker boy” in the coal mines. By age 14, he is secretary of his local union. He helps found the United Mine Workers and serves as secretary-treasurer. He represents Pennsylvania’s 15th District in the U.S. Congress. A champion of the eight-hour workday and jobs for women and minorities, he plays an important role in our World War I victory by mobilizing an effective workforce for defense production.
A multi-millionaire who runs a poverty-wage empire is going to run a government agency meant to promote “the welfare of wage earners”. I bet he’s going to be on the working man’s side, as much as the guy who started in the coal mines at age 9.
So why is Puzder being picked? What about his business practices does Trump find attractive?
The advertisements that Mr. Puzder’s companies runs to promote its restaurants frequently feature women wearing next to nothing while gesturing suggestively. “I like our ads,” he told the publication Entrepreneur. “I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it’s very American.”
I forgot, he’s going to join the ogler-in-chief’s cabinet so has to be a douche in good standing.