Donald Trump lovesfast food. The 45th president has no problem wolfing down a Quarter Pounder or digging his way through a bucket of KFC. Great stuff, he once called the cheap, greasy fare.
Six months into Trumps presidency, the fast-food industry has plenty of reason to love him back.
The oil and gas sector, coal producers and for-profit colleges are all clear winnersin the Trump teams mission to deconstruct the administrative state. But so far, fast food, retail and other lower-wage industries have benefited as much as anyone from the administrations great regulatory rollback.
Lobbyists for restaurants, hotels and other franchised businesses spent the last several years fighting the Obama administration on one regulation after another. But the new White House occupant has heard their grievances, making industry-friendly changes to employment laws and how theyre enforced. Thats included abandoning Obamas overtime reforms, shying away from a minimum wage raise, and limiting whos considered an employer under the law all of which have a disproportionate effect on lower-wage, labor-intensive fields like fast food.
All told, the new administration has given McDonalds and its friends plenty to cheer about.
The early signs are that it can be more like night and day in terms of approach, said Matt Haller, senior vice president at the International Franchise Association, an industry group representing franchisers, including McDonalds. We just want regulations that are fair and reasonable and very clear.
The previous White House viewed regulation as a means to lift up workers at the bottom of the economic ladder, particularly folks doing low-paid service work like fast food and hospitality. Hence their push for a higher mandated wage floor, expanded overtime protections and aggressive enforcement of wage and hour laws. Like Obama, Trump speaks often of forgotten workers whose pay has stagnated, but so far his prescription for improving their lot mainly involves unfettering their employers.
That shouldnt come as a surprise for a president who made his fortune in hotels and went on to nominate a burger chain executive to be the countrys top workplace watchdog. (Andrew Puzder, the former CEO of Hardees and Carls Jr., ended up withdrawing his controversial nomination.) Still, the degree to which the administration is taking the reins off employers has distressed past officials who took a more aggressive tack.
Its the combination of these policies thats deeply troubling, said David Weil, who led the Labor Departments Wage and Hour Division under Obama. I see very little evidence that they are doing anything to address the needs of working people who have been left behind for a long time.
While he was in office, Weil tried to steer the agencys investigations toward the industries where he saw the most vulnerable workers fast food, sit-down restaurants, hotels and motels, janitorial companies and so forth. A Labor Department spokesman said the agency under Trump still carries out what it calls targeted enforcement programs. But pressed on whether they were targeting the same low-wage fields as before, the spokesman declined to say.
Some of the changes under Trump have little practical impact, but speak volumes about the administrations peculiar form of populism.
Employers in food and hospitality were apoplectic over the Obama administrations view on joint employment: the idea that more than one entity might be responsible when a worker gets injured or shorted on pay. The Obama administration put companies on notice that they, too, could be responsible for abuses against workers who are technically employed by temp firms and contractors. Fast-food brands like McDonalds recoiled at the idea they might be as liable for workplace violations as the franchisees who operate McDonalds restaurants.
After Trumps second pick for labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, assumed office in April, one of the first steps the agency took was to rescind the guidance on joint employment issued under Obama. Speaking to a retail lobby last month, Vice President Mike Pence proudly noted the change, drawing applause.
In another early move, the Labor Department brought back what are known as opinion letters. When employers are sued for allegedly not paying overtime or the minimum wage, they can ask the Labor Department to pen one of these letters in their defense, to be used in court. Weil likens them to a get-out-of-jail-free card for employers, and the Obama administration did not issue them. Trumps Labor Department, however, has trumpeted their return.
Trump also rescinded an executive order from Obama that would have made it harder for firms to secure federal contracts if they have a documented history of wage theft. Obamas order was the result of a campaign by fast-food workers who had been shorted on their pay while working on federal properties. (Two other orders from Obama one raising the minimum wage for federal contractors and another mandating sick leave for them have so far survived this administration.)
Other changes on the employment front are far more significant. The Obama administration tried to reform the nations overtime rules and guarantee more workers time and a half pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week. The share of salaried employees who are protected by overtime law has dropped off a cliffsince the 1970s. The changes the Obama administration made would have extended overtime rights to 4 million additional workers, according to the previous White House.
Carlo Allegri/Reuters
After business groups sued to stop Obamas plan, the Trump White House declined to defend it. The new administration seems to share the view of business groups that Obamas proposal covered too many workers and was too costly for employers. If Trump takes his own crack at overtime reform, its likely hell make far fewer workers eligible for time and a half pay.
Many of the people Obamas reforms aimed to help work in food and retail jobs, earning relatively low salaries while clocking long days. A group of Chipotle workers recently sued the burrito chainfor backpay, arguing Obamas overtime changes should still apply even though the rule is now in legal limbo. The case hasnt yet been decided.
As with the overtime expansion, this White House has abandoned the push for a higher minimum wage made by Obama. The idea of hiking the minimum wage tends to poll well across party lines; although he flip-flopped on the issueas a candidate, Trump once said he would like to raise it to at least $10. But so far as president, he seems intent to leave such matters to the market. The federal minimum wage, which prevails in any state without a higher one, is currently $7.25 per hour and hasnt been raised in eight years.
Beyond the major policy shifts, Trumps effect on low-wage work will be felt in less obvious ways. He recently made two nominations to the five-member National Labor Relations Board, which interprets collective bargaining law and referees disputes between employers and unions. His conservative choices one is a management-side attorney, the other a former GOP staffer who served on the House labor committee would end the current liberal majority and push the board to the right. (One of them has already been confirmed.)
If history is any indication, the Republican board would likely reverse some union-friendly rulings and draw tighter boundaries around whos eligible to unionize. Celine McNicholas, a labor policy expert at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said the board is one way Trump could chip away at what she considered modest gains made for lower-income workers during the Obama years.
These potential setbacks are going to prove to be incredibly damaging, particularly for folks who are low-wage workers, McNicholas said. They are certainly losers under the Trump administration.
One potential beneficiary of the new board is McDonalds. The fast-food giant recently went to trial before an administrative law judge at the labor board to determine whether it counts as a joint employer alongside its franchisees; McDonalds could be held jointly responsible for violating workers rights. In general, a conservative labor board would be more likely to side with employers in such contentious cases.
The boards general counsel, Richard Griffin, who functions as a quasi-prosecutor, brought the case against McDonalds on behalf of workers who claimed theyd been illegally retaliated against for their activism in the Fight for $15 protests. A former union lawyer, Griffin assumed the post in 2013 and has been a thorn in the side of not just McDonalds but also Walmart and other employers hes taken to trial. His aggressive tenure has so infuriated business groups that some Republicans have demanded that he step down.
But at this point, that would no longer be necessary. Griffins four-year term expires in November. It will be up to Trump to choose his replacement.
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Donald Trump Is The Fast-Food President - HuffPost