At the recent CFA Lobby Day Forum (held in May) in Washington DC, Representative Scott Peters (D-CA) joined the CFA Board as its guest speaker for the CFA Directors dinner. Having the Congressman join us gave the Board the opportunity to speak candidly with him and in greater detail about an array of issues that are of concern to the franchise owner community. One of those issues which CFA Chairman (and Dunkin’ franchisee) John Motta brought forward was the tendency of state and local governments to exclude franchised business owners from the ranks of “small business” for purposes of dictating minimum wage increases. Well, this week Representative Scott Peters responded to our enlightening him by filing the Wage Increase Fairness Act, a bipartisan bill (Republican Representative Rodney Davis is co-sponsoring) that would prevent local governments from mandating faster minimum wage increases for franchised businesses than would be required of non-franchised small business. The legislation would not prohibit state or local minimum wage hikes, rather it would require that all businesses be treated alike, whether they are franchised or not. Although there’s a long way to go, the filing itself underscores the importance letting Congress know you concerns through organizations such as the Coalition of Franchisee Associations (CFA).