Andy Puzder understands what almost no liberals have even the slightest clue about: Businesses exist to maximize profit. If an employee enjoys prosperity as a result of providing value to the business and being commensurately rewarded, that's a good thing that makes everyone happy. But the purpose of the business is not to make employees rich just for the sake of it. It's to make the shareholders rich.
So when dopes take to the streets demanding a minimum wage of $15 with their mindless #FightFor15, Puzder understand exactly what that will mean. Minimum wage employees aren't worth $15 an hour, and if that's what they need to be paid, then smart businesses like Hardee's and Carl's Jr. - whose parent company Puzder serves as CEO - will have to start investing in technology to do things like the taking of food orders. He'd rather employee people, but he's not dumb enough to do it if he has to lose money on the employment relationships.
Puzder, chief executive of CKE Restaurants Inc [APOLOT.UL], which operates the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast-food chains, has been a vociferous critic of government regulation of the workplace.
Puzder frequently publishes commentary and gives television interviews in which he argues that higher minimum wages would hurt workers by forcing restaurants to close, and praises the benefits of automation in the fast-food industry.
Fast-food workers, who are largely not unionized, are engaged in a multi-year campaign known as the "Fight for $15," which is supported by labor unions, to raise minimum wages to $15 per hour. They have had state-wide successes in New York and California and in cities and municipalities such as Seattle.
Politicians who have never had to make a payroll can yammer on all they want about how everyone needs to be paid at least $15 an hour so they can have "dignity" or whatever. A man like Andy Puzder understands what it means when you pay employees more than they are able to generate back to the business in the form of value: You get higher-priced products, fewer people employed, much worse service and companies struggling to stay in business.
Keeping labor costs reasonable given the overheads and margins of a business is essential. The inclination of buttinski politicians to tell companies what they have to pay people has long been one of the biggest obstacles to achieving that goal for American companies.
The unionized left thinks of the Labor Department as its servant, pushing the union agenda at the expense of evil management. Trump made it clear with the selection of Puzder that the Labor Department is going to work toward what's good for the entire country, not one interest group that is used to enriching itself by using blunt political power at the expense of others.
So #FightFor15ers, I'd say you're out for the count. Maybe you should try doing more valuable work so that the your bosses actually want to pay you that much. It stands a better chance of succeeding than marching in the streets and waving signs - especially now, because the new crew in Washington knows better than to listen to your nonsense.
