Is Franchise Model a Recipe for Fast-Food Wage Violations?

The franchising structure itself contributes to fast-food restaurant violations, the official overseeing the Labor Department’s wage-and-hour enforcement strategy argues, but the theory is subject to debate.

Regardless of the cause, here’s what’s certain: Fast-food workers earn low wages to begin with and when Wage and Hour Division investigators audit leading quick-service brands, they’re very likely to find Fair Labor Standards Act violations.

In 2010, before David Weil became the WHD’s top official, he recommended that the agency focus fast-food investigations on franchisees, particularly on larger multi-outlet owners. Weil, then an economics professor at Boston University, said in a report