INSTITUTE INDEX: The Fight for $15 protests Trump's labor secretary pick
Nationwide protests this week targeted Donald Trump's choice for labor secretary: Andrew Puzder, CEO of the company that owns the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. fast-food chains. Puzder is an opponent of an increased minimum wage, more generous overtime benefits, paid sick leave and the Affordable Care Act, while his restaurants have a record of labor law violations and rampant sexual harassment of women workers. (Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikipedia.)
Date on which the Fight for $15 movement held about two-dozen protests nationwide at Hardee's and Carl's Jr. fast-food restaurants owned by CKE Restaurants, a privately held company whose CEO is Andrew Puzder, Donald Trump's pick for labor secretary: 1/12/2017
In the past seven years, percent of all Labor Department investigations of Carl's Jr. restaurants that have found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act: about 60
Month in which Puzder had an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal opposing among other things paid sick leave and the Affordable Care Act: 3/2016
Month in which he had an op-ed published by Forbes opposing an Obama administration proposal that would have extended overtime eligibility to 4 million more workers: 5/2016
Back in 2004, amount CKE paid to settle claims that it had failed to pay overtime to store managers: $9 million
Year in which CKE was hit with another class-action suit that's still pending alleging it failed to pay its managers overtime while requiring them to be on call 24 hours a day: 2013
Percent of female workers at CKE Restaurants — which features scantily clad women in its ads to appeal to young male customers — who've experienced sexual harassment at work: 66
Average rate of sexual harassment across the fast-food industry: 40
Minimum hourly wage Puzder has opposed, although he has said he supports "rationally" raising the current minimum hourly wage of $7.25: $10.10
Amount Puzder earns annually, meaning he makes more in one day than he pays one of his minimum wage workers in one year: $4.4 million
By holding down pay for their employees, amount fast-food executives like Puzder cost taxpayers annually in public assistance: $7.3 billion
Amount Puzder and his wife gave to the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee in the 2016 election cycle: more than $300,000
Month in which Puzder's confirmation hearing, which was originally scheduled for this month, may be held, according to an aide to Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee: 2/2017
(Click on figure to go to source.)
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.