On Tuesday of this week, a federal appeals court gave McDonald’s Corporation a significant victory on the question of joint employment status. The US Court of Appeals for the 9^th Circuit found in Salazar v. McDonalds that the company was not a joint employer in that it did not exert enough control over employees at Bay Area restaurants to qualify as such with the local franchisee. The ruling upheld a similar finding by the lower district court back in 2017 that McDonald’s did not exercise the requisite level of control over the franchisee’s employees to qualify as their ‘joint employer’. In the 2-1 decision, the appeals court acknowledged there was “arguably evidence suggesting that McDonald’s was aware that the franchisee was violating California age-and–hour law,” it did not find sufficient control over the franchisee’s employees to warrant a finding of joint employer.  Although the issue is one step closer to final resolution with the appellate court decision, it is likely the case will be appealed again to the US Supreme Court for final resolution. Furthermore, there are other NLRB-initiated joint employer challenges still pending.