The fast-food restaurants run by Andrew Puzder, President Trump‘s nominee to be labor secretary, have one of the better records when it comes to labor rights violations, a survey of Labor Department data shows. Compared with other major restaurant franchises such as McDonald’s, Subway or Dairy Queen, Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. restaurants have lower rates of investigations, violations and penalties paid.
The data runs contrary to claims of critics of CKE Restaurants, the franchiser that owns the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. brands. The critics, including Democratic lawmakers and organized labor, argue that CKE’s record shows that Puzder wouldn’t do a good job.
That claim isn’t borne out by data from the Labor Department’s Wage & Hour Division on franchise fast-food restaurants. On average the major chains have 3 percent of their franchisees investigated for labor violations. That’s based on Labor Department data from 2009 through 2015. The data was compiled by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.