Go to contents

Trump taps anti-worker activist for labor secretary

Posted December. 10, 2016 06:50,   

Updated December. 10, 2016 07:19

한국어
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump named fast-food CEO, an opponent of higher minimum wage, as his choice for labor secretary. The labor secretary nominee is Andy Puzder, the chief executive of CKE Restaurants Holdings Inc., the parent company of Hardee’s burger chains.

The Trump transition spokesman Jason Miller called Puzder on Tuesday “an excellent advocate for the president-elect and his economic message,” and explained his nomination as labor secretary, saying, “He’s someone who is both a job creator and understands what we need to do to help get our economy moving for everybody.”

However, Mr. Puzder is against raising the minimum wage and expanded overtime pay coverage that were major labor policies of the Obama administration and people argue that he is not a figure to advocate labor rights as the labor secretary. The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Puzder considered to fix the minimum wage less than 9 dollars per hour at the top, which is currently 7.5 dollars. CNN called him an enemy of a $15 minimum wage (that workers want). During the U.S. presidential election campaign, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton proposed a $15 minimum wage plan. The president-elect Trump shifted his position to a modest increase from his initial stance of against the raise.

In January 2014, President Obama issued an executive order for federal contract workers to increase their minimum wages to $10.10 when his wage increase legislation failed to pass the congress due to the opposition of Republican party. In a media interview, Mr. Puzder then criticized the Obama administration for attacking the franchising model by implementing regulations that stunt job growth. He also blamed that the government made the wage raise a mandatory when technological cost was reduced every day.



Seung-Heon Lee ddr@donga.com