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Fast-food exec is Trump pick to lead Labor
Andrew Puzder opposes a $15 minimum wage and Obama’s new overtime rules
WASHINGTON — Fastfood executive Andrew Puzder, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the next Labor Department secretary, turned around the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s with help from scantily clad women hawking oversized burgers in racy ads.
More recently, he has raised his own profile by becoming an outspoken national advocate on behalf of businesses, railing against increased government regulation, bemoaning the costs of the Affordable Care Act and serving as an economic adviser to Trump.
On Thursday, Trump announced his intention to nominate Puzder to head the department charged with ensuring workers’ rights and safety — and likely to lead an effort to undo many Obama administration initiatives.
“Andy will fight to make American workers safer and more prosperous by enforcing fair occupational safety standards and ensuring workers receive the benefits they deserve, and he will save small businesses from the crushing burdens of unnecessary regulations that are stunting job growth and suppressing wages,” Trump said in a statement.
Puzder said he shared Trump’s belief that “the right government policies can result in more jobs and better wages for the American worker.”
Puzder, 66, has criticized new federal rules expanding overtime pay and opposes the push for a $15 minimum wage. He also has mused about deploying increased automation to his restaurants.
Unlike Trump, Puzder has advocated for providing legal status — but not citizenship — to the millions of immigrants in the country illegally, saying massive deportation is not a practical option and that the Republican resistance to broadbased reform was hurting the party.
Beginning as the personal attorney to Carl’s Jr. founder Carl Karcher, Puzder helped CKE Restaurants overcome severe financial difficulties in the 1990s, caused in part by the purchase of the troubled Hardee’s franchise. He took over as CEO in 2000.
“Andrew Puzder is someone with the real-world experience to understand workforce issues and how jobs are created,” said David French, senior vice president for government relations at the National Retail Federation.
But Democrats and advocates for U.S. workers balked at Trump’s intention to nominate Puzder to head a federal department that is focused on increasing employment opportunities, improving working conditions and protecting employee rights.
Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, a worker advocacy group, said Thursday that “based on Mr. Puzder’s own comments, it’s hard to think of anyone less suited for the job of lifting up America’s forgotten workers.”
Under Puzder’s leadership, CKE defied a trend toward healthier fast-food fare by focusing on jumbosized hamburgers. And he pitched them to customers through provocative advertisements, including one in 2005 starring Paris Hilton eating a burger amid soap suds while washing a luxury car.
“I like our ads. I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think it’s very American,” Puzder said in a 2015 interview.
Vicki Shabo, vice president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, said Thursday that Puzder’s views on women “were deeply troubling.”
“He’s objectified and undermined women in an effort to sell hamburgers,” she said of Puzder.
CKE has more than 3,300 locations in 42 states and 28 countries. It was acquired by private equity firm Apollo Global Management in 2010 and taken private.
Under President Barack Obama, the Labor Department was aggressive about protecting workers through new rules and enforcement actions. Obama’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order, which was blocked by a federal judge this fall, made it tougher for companies to win federal contracts if they violated workers’ rights.
Puzder could lead an effort to scrap Obama administration initiatives, particularly the overtime rules, which seek to broaden the number of Americans who are compensated for extra work by doubling the salary level below which hourly workers must receive overtime. Those rules also recently were blocked by a federal judge.
“The real world is far different than the Labor Department’s Excel spreadsheet,” Puzder wrote in an opinion article in Forbes this spring about the overtime rule.