ANTI-FRANCHISE NOMINEE DAVID WEIL HEADS TO SENATE FLOOR FOR CONSIDERATION

The U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee today voted along a party-line vote to advance anti-franchise nominee Dr. David Weil to serve as Administrator of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Weil’s nomination was rejected last year, but he now heads to the full Senate for consideration after being renominated by the Biden administration.

There are few people as harmful to the franchising model as David Weil. Dr. Weil has a long track record of implementing policies damaging to businesses and especially workers, and an unquestionable bias against the franchise industry. Dr. Weil’s history shows that he holds no issue implementing policies to hurt businesses, particularly the thousands of small, local businesses IFA represents.

IFA has successfully fought once before to stop his nomination and urges the Senate to vote against him before he has the ability to put the 8.7 million franchise workers in jeopardy.

Weil, author of The Fissured Workplace, has accused franchises of providing lower pay, benefits, and job security and of being more willing to violate consumer, workplace, or environmental regulations. He even goes as far as saying, “Franchisors benefit at the expense of franchisees.”

Contradictory to Weil’s comments about franchises, a recent IFA-Oxford Economics report illustrates how franchises:

• Report sales 1.8 times as large as comparable non-franchise establishments, on average. Black-owned franchises earn 2.2 times as much in sales compared to Black-owned independent businesses, on average.
• Provide 2.3 times as many jobs than their non-franchise counterparts, on average.
• Pass their success on to employees in the form of higher wages and benefits and greater opportunity for advancement.
• Pay 2.2 – 3.4 percent higher wages than similar non-franchises.

Last year, IFA, along with 13 of our coalition partners, sent a letter to the HELP Commitee opposing Weil’s nomination, saying, “Based on his previous service at DOL, and his track record of bias against the regulated community, particularly the smallest employers in America, we remain concerned that Dr. Weil would again implement policies at DOL that are unbalanced and would harm workers and small businesses, in particular women and minority-owned businesses that employ millions of Americans.”

Here's what some others have said:

“We write to urge you to formally withdraw the nomination of Dr. David Weil, of Massachusetts, to be Administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, Department of Labor, vice Cheryl Marie Stanton. Dr. Weil’s track record is hostile to employers, unproductive to the employees served by such employers, and the actions he took at the federal level were mired in costly litigation.” – Senators Burr, Braun, Tim Scott, Cassidy, Marshall, Moran, 12/29/21

“Weil is a radical academic with no private sector experience that is anti-free enterprise to his core. If confirmed, Weil will work overtime to destroy the franchise business model that employs 7.6 million Americans nationwide.” – Americans for Tax Reform, 7/9/21

“A retread from the Obama administration, David Weil’s nomination to the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is yet another example of President Joe Biden's decision to fill the executive branch with radical left-wing ideologues. Weil is a vocal critic of the franchise system and gig economy, both of which provide millions of Americans with good-paying jobs.” – FreedomWorks, 1/11/22

Dr. Weil’s nomination should have never made it out of committee in the first place, especially after it was rejected last year. However, IFA will continue to fight against this threat to franchising and the economic opportunity it provides to millions of people across the country as his vote heads to the Senate floor.