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NY Times, Dec. 8 2016
Trump’s Likely Labor Pick, Andrew Puzder, Is Critic of Minimum Wage
Increases
By NOAM SCHEIBER and MAGGIE HABERMAN
President-elect Donald J. Trump is expected to name Andrew F. Puzder,
chief executive of the company that operates the fast food outlets
Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. and an outspoken critic of the worker
protections enacted by the Obama administration, to be secretary of
labor, people close to the transition said on Thursday.
Mr. Puzder has spent his career in the private sector and has opposed
efforts to expand eligibility for overtime pay, while arguing that large
minimum wage increases hurt small businesses and lead to job loss among
low-skilled workers.
He strongly supports repealing the Affordable Care Act, which he
maintains has helped create a “restaurant recession” because rising
premiums have left middle- and working-class people with less money to
spend dining out.
Mr. Puzder will arguably have less experience in government than any
labor secretary since the early 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan
appointed a longtime construction executive named Raymond J. Donovan.
Mr. Donovan’s tenure was marked by an easing of numerous regulations.
In selecting Mr. Puzder, Mr. Trump appears to be banking on the idea
that he can replicate some of his own appeal. Mr. Puzder, too, is a
successful businessman prone to making populist pronouncements — he
complained that “big corporate interests” and “globalist companies” were
supporting Hillary Clinton in the presidential election — and the
occasional streak of political incorrectness.
The advertisements that Mr. Puzder’s companies runs to promote its
restaurants frequently feature women wearing next to nothing while
gesturing suggestively. “I like our ads,” he told the publication
Entrepreneur. “I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis. I think
it’s very American.”
But Mr. Trump is also taking a risk that a wealthy chief executive will
be viewed as a credible advocate for workers.
In a 2012 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr.
Puzder’s company listed his base salary as over $1 million. “Annual base
salaries should be competitive and create a measure of financial
security for our executive officers,” the filing said.
Many advocates of raising the minimum wage significantly argue that it
is necessary to provide a measure of financial security to ordinary workers.
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