Labor secretary nominee opposes worker protection laws, raising minimum wage

AROUND THE BLOCK

News with a Twist

 Fast-food exec to be named Labor Secretary

Critic of worker protections and increasing minimum wage to be in charge or welfare of wage earners

The New York Times reported that 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.

Mr. Puzder has spent his career in the private sector and has opposed efforts to expand eligibility for overtime pay, arguing that the minimum wage hurts small businesses and leads to job loss among low-skilled workers.

If confirmed, Mr. Puzder will oversee a department whose mission statement reads:

  

To foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.

  

Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Puzder is a successful businessman prone to populist statements and a degree of political incorrectness. This latter trait is demonstrated most prominently in the ads he runs for his companies which frequently feature women wearing next to nothing and 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.”

So "very American," with Mr. Puzder's selection the Trump transition team is claiming one more score for American exceptionalism.

Puzder’s selection follows Trump’s naming of Scott Pruitt to head the EPA. 

This means, in the space of 24 hours, a climate change denier has been named to protect the environment and a critic of worker protection who is against raising the minimum wage will be in charge of "fostering, promoting and developing the welfare of wage earners..."

There has been no confirmation from the transition team at Trump Tower that along with Mr. Puzder's nomination, Mr. Trump is considering an executive order changing the name of the Department of Labor to the Department of Anti-Labor.