Obama’s attack on franchises affects challenge to Seattle’s $15 min wage fairness

by NW Spotlight

The decision this week by the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel to classify McDonald’s as a “joint employer” of its franchisees’ employees has connections to the lawsuit filed in June by the International Franchise Association (IFA) against the franchisee provisions in Seattle’s new minimum wage law.

The IFA lawsuit alleges that the city’s law illegally discriminates against franchisees and improperly treats them not as the small, locally-owned businesses they are, but as large, national companies. Under the law, small-business franchisees are required to adopt the full minimum wage increase in the same 3-year time frame as businesses with more than 500 employees.

IFA President Steve Caldeira was interviewed on video this week by Wall Street Journal Live about the NLRB counsel’s decision, and below is an editorial in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal “Obama’s Big Mac Attack,” about the implications to the franchiser-franchisee business model and SEIU’s involvement in the NLRB decision.