A new report from Bloomberg exposes how the Obama Administration specifically targeted franchises with investigations, putting burdensome and expensive work on top of organizations that should be spending their time creating jobs and growing the economy. From the report:
Since President Barack Obama took office, the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division has subjected the nation’s three largest quick-service restaurants by volume of stores—Subway, McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts—to 2,023 investigations.
The division conducted 1,298 Subway investigations, or 4.3 percent of the sandwich-maker’s 27,000 stores, when factoring for repeat cases, a review of concluded WHD cases shows.
The investigations, led by the highly partisan and anti-free enterprise Wage And Hour Division (WHD), were looking for minor Fair Labor Standards Act violations. It speaks to the anti-business attitude from this administration that they would go after franchises directly on insignificant accusations, diverting their attention away from their mission of growing the economy.
On top of that, franchises do not deserve to be unfairly targeted because they are not the ones that would be privy to any violations. That would only be known and perpetrated by the individual establishment:
The IFA, whose members include most of the top-20 fast-food brands, argues that franchisees are independent entities that are individually responsible for ensuring FLSA compliance.
Despite this simple fact, the WHD still targets franchises unfairly due to their disdain with the free market and private sector growth. Instead of going after companies that spur economy growth, the WHD should spend its time putting in place policies that allow the private sector to create more employment opportunities for people that need them, lifting up the entire economy.
It speaks to the mindset of the entire Obama Administration that bureaucrats at the WHD would go after free markets and free enterprise, restricting economic growth at a time when workers needs stable employment and economic growth would improve conditions across the board.