Puzder to put in new policy

Thursday, president-elect Donald Trump nominated Andy Puzder as secretary of labor. Puzder, CEO of CKE, the company that owns Carls Jr. and Hardees, is perhaps best known for his strong opposition towards an increase to the minimum wage, as well as ostensibly being in support of replacing human workers with machines. These viewpoints make him a villain in the eyes of low-income workers and advocates of an increased worker pay, but does that make him a villain to America as a whole? I believe not. 

As new secretary of labor, it is obvious that Puzder will not allow the 15$ minimum wage to pass, and I think that is rightly so. "I'm not opposed to raising the minimum wage rationally;" said Puzder, "I'm opposed to raising it to the point where lower-skilled workers, working-class Americans, young people, minorities, are losing the jobs they need to get on the ladder of success." Sure, raising the minimum wage to 15$ will put more money into your pocket, but at the expense of the people and businesses that need it the most. With a minimum wage increase this extreme, why would businesses feel the need to hire entry-level employees to do unskilled labor at that high of a cost? Like Puzder said, these are jobs needed to get on the ladder of success, meaning they are at the bottom. These jobs were never intended to support a family off of, but rather be an entry into the workforce, a stepping stone for something better. In which, to use Puzder's words, you then use to start climbing the ladder into higher paying, more skilled jobs. "I started out scooping ice cream at Baskin-Robins at a dollar an hour," Puzder stated in an interview, "but there is no way in the world that scooping ice cream is worth 15$ an hour...Those jobs just don't produce that kind of value like a construction job or a manufacturing job does."

In an interview with Business Insider, Puzder said machines are "always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there's never  a slip-and-fall or an age, sex, race discrimination case." This has drawn fire towards him, giving people even more reason to suggest that Puzder doesn't care for the people, but only the business. But what many people overlook is that Puzder may be in favor of some forms of automation, but he still supports his workers. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed article, he said, "having access to a person is important to assure smooth experiences for everyone." And, in reference to how his employees make the food, he also says, "None of these tasks can be effectively automated, and we wouldn't want them to be." Another thing that many people overlook, or choose not to look at, is that before becoming CEO of CKE, he was the general counsel and saved the company from bankruptcy, CKE restaurants now employ over 75,000 workers in the US, and nearly 100,000 workers worldwide. A high number for someone who is described as "a man whose business record is defined by fighting against working people."