The Cook County Board of Commissioners held a public hearing this week on the “Cook County Responsible Business Act”, a proposed ordinance that will penalize businesses with more than 750 employees (including franchises) for paying less than a specifically-defined hourly wage. The proposed ordinance seeks to extort, er . . . collect a fee of…
Read More »Incredibly, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo accused businesses of stealing from the taxpayers because the state provides financial assistance to residents earning below certain levels of income. On a “push the legislature for $15/hour wage” tour, the Governor said that “Business is stealing from the taxpayers of this state” because workers making less than $15/hour…
Read More »In a perfect follow-up to the above story on the Governor’s take on New York businesses, the Tax Foundation released the 2016 State Business Tax Index this week, with New York coming in 2nd last in the country! The index, which is released annually, measures how well states structure their tax systems as relates the…
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New York and New Jersey franchise owners will want to mark their calendars for “The 1-2-3s of Employment Law – Hot Topics” on Tuesday, December 15 at the Doubletree Hotel Newark Airport. The program will feature Attorney Tracy Armstrong, a partner and Executive Director of the firm Davison, Eastman and Munoz. Ms. Armstrong, who has…
Read More »DDIFO Restaurant Analyst John Gordon had the opportunity to attend the recent conference and provides us with some of his observations, going beyond the headlines and the spin from earnings calls. Overall, restaurant market share has been stagnant for years, but: Restaurant sales are flat-to-up marginally but traffic is still down from the 2007 pre-recession…
Read More »Starbucks presented some new and interesting data this week at the Morgan Stanley Conference: their average ticket is $5, while the food only portion of total sales is 20% and growing 1 percentage point per year. They recently expanded the employee meal authorization to include food, which helped associates talk more easily about the food.…
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Franchise owners at DDIFO’s national convention in Las Vegas had surely heard all the talk about the end of franchising as we know it. The National Labor Relations Board’s controversial joint-employer decision has triggered a backlash in the franchising world, with the labor board ruling that a big recycling company is responsible for the employees…
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For those of you who are not football fans or are perhaps too young to remember Leon Lett and his embarrassment in Super Bowl XXVII (you can Google it for the particulars), the 2015 Track & Field World Championships held this summer in Beijing, China give an updated version of that important life lesson: keep…
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Franchise owners at DDIFO’s national convention in Las Vegas had surely heard all the talk about the end of franchising as we know it. The National Labor Relations Board’s controversial joint-employer decision has triggered a backlash in the franchising world, with the labor board ruling that a big recycling company is responsible for the employees…
Read More »
Pushing Pennsylvania Fair Franchising Last month DDIFO Executive Director Ed Shanahan and Coalition of Franchisee Association (CFA) Chairman Keith Miller were in Harrisburg to testify before a Pennsylvania House Consumer Affairs Committee hearing on House Bill #1620, better known as Fair Franchising. “HB 1620 will require that when terminating a franchising agreement – firing the…
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