Among the sillier claims in the debate over whether McDonald’s is a joint employer of its franchise employees is the one made today by International Franchise Association president Steve Caldeira. Speaking about McDonald’s decision to raise wages for the approximately 5% of employees who work directly for the chain (and not for franchises), Caldeira said:
Today’s announcement is a reminder to policymakers, government agencies and unelected regulators at the NLRB and the Department of Labor that McDonald’s and all franchisors are not joint employers with their franchisees and make separate and independent decisions about the wages and benefits for employees over which they exercise direct and immediate control.
The idea, I suppose, is that McDonald’s can prove it doesn’t employ 95% of its workforce by not giving 95% of its workforce a raise.
Brian Mahoney, at Politico, has a good analysis of the wage increase.
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