Franchise Outlook
Franchisee Fairness Bill Bad for Franchisees?
A change may seem like a good thing… until you examine it more closely. So it is with California’s “Franchise Bill of Rights,” vetoed by the governor least year but back again. The CEO of Carl’s Jr., Andrew Puzder, wrote a letter to the editor of the Orange County Register…
Union Steps Up Franchise Efforts
The Service Employees International Union has been agitating for increased wages for service workers, with a focus on fast food workers. Since so many fast food restaurants are franchises, the SEIU has been engaged with franchise businesses along the way. McDonald’s has been their primary target, though 14 different franchises…
Franchising And Minimum Wage Laws
Franchisees in Seattle have been arguing that they’ll be at a serious disadvantage compared with independent businesses if Seattle’s new minimum wage law goes into effect as it’s written. The law requires all businesses to move toward a minimum wage of $15 an hour, but small businesses get seven years…
Franchise Minimum Wage Update
We’ve been following the legal issues around minimum wage laws and how they’ll affect franchisees for some time, but they’ve been abstract up until now. On April 1st, just a few weeks from now, Seattle’s minimum wage rise will go into effect. In between then and now, there will be…
Coping with Franchise Changes
Another set of franchisees has decided to sue their franchisor. In this case, the franchisor has changed hands several times in the past years and the new owner — an equity holding company — has made a lot of changes. Here’s a sampling, from the point of view of the…
Senate Hearing on Franchise Industry
Last week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing on the changes facing the franchise industry following the National Labor Relations Board’s decision that franchisors and franchisees can be “joint employers.” The “joint employer” idea says that the corporate office shares responsibility for employee working…
Franchise Forecast for 2015
Franchise businesses are expected to drive much of the job creation for 2015. The International Franchise Association announced this week that it expects to see 247,000 more jobs in franchise businesses in 2015, an increase of 2.9 percent. This is just slightly more than 2014’s 2.8 percent job growth. 2014…
Who Started Out as a Franchisee?
Franchise businesses appeal to celebrities as investments, to retired people looking for a second career, to new college grads having trouble finding a job. But they also appeal to plenty of savvy businesspeople. One example you might not have heard about: Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart. “Mr. Sam,” as…
Minimum Wage Campaigns and Franchisees
The Wall Street Journal recently predicted that minimum wage campaigns would heat up during the holiday season, and that franchisees in particular would be affected. The president would like to see the national minimum wage increased, but states and cities are making legal changes on their own, and protesters are…
California’s Franchise Bill Vetoed
Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill, SB 610, that would have made substantial changes in the relationships of franchisors and franchisees in California. One of the big changes the bill would have made was in the ability of franchisors to close down or refuse to renew a franchisee’s relationship…