The Working Lunch

This week, NRA Board member Tom Boucher, along with other panelists, testified before a Congressional Subcomittee egarding the labor community’s efforts to eliminate the tip credit as well as the onerous complications from the Administration’s 80/20/30 rule. Also on the panel was One Fair Wage head Saru Jayaraman. Let’s just say Tom had a better day. We’ll dive into that.

And former President Trump upped the populist ante this week calling for both the elimination of taxes on overtime wages as well as a 10% cap on credit card interest rates. Both are likely impossible to achieve but it sure makes his audiences respond. We’ll take a look.

We’ll talk about those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

We’ll discuss how One Fair Wage, despite their abysmal record on getting legislation passed and ballot initiatives certified, continues to knock it out of the park when it comes to headlines and influence. Just this week, Vice-President Harris announced her economic plan which includes elimination of the tip credit. How is One Fair Wage doing it? We’ll discuss.

And we’ll have a quick recap of the presidential debate and see if there are any learnings in there for us there.

We’ll talk about those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

Just when we thought we were done dealing with the Joint Employer issue, it pulls us back in - this time it's the NLRB saying Amazon is a joint employer with a third-party delivery service. We are joined by Ed Egee, Vice President of Government Relations and Workforce Development for the National Retail Federation who will walk us through that situation and highlight what operators need to know. He will also discuss the ramifications of the seismic decision by a US Appeals Court squashing the Labor Department’s 80/20 rule.And the pressure is on in the DEI space as conservative activists continue collecting corporate scalps targeting companies for their policies. This week saw Lowe’s and the Ford Moror Company change direction on this increasingly volatile sace. We’ll take a look.We’ll talk about those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

The credit card interchange fee issue is raging right now as the news cycle is full of stories about all-time high ATM fees, all-time high debit card fees and accordingly, all-time high bank and credit card industry profits. Yet at the same time, the banks and credit card companies are crying poor mouth and pretending that any restrictions on their business practices will be the end of the republic as we know it. We’ll talk to our industry’s point man on the subject, Brennan Duckett, Director of Technology & Innovation Policy at the National Restaurant Association, to help us sort it all out and tell us what we can expect moving forward.

We’ll talk about that, a brief recap of the Democratic National Convention, and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

We’ll talk about the economic plans released this week by both presidential candidates and discuss the prominence of the tip taxation issue in both agendas. Is the tip issue just populist rhetoric or a legitimate policy proposal? We’ll dive into that.

And the Wall Street Journal published a major piece this week regarding the political program at McDonald’s and their large investment in local politics - particulary in California. Was the article good or bad for the industry? Or maybe a lot of both? We’ll discuss.

And Brian Niccol left Chipotle this week to take the reins at Starbucks. He’s no stranger to union organizing so what does this mean for the most high-profile union organizing campaign in industry history. We’ll take a look.

We’ll talk about those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

We are joined by Sean Kennedy, Executive Vice President of Public Affairs for the National Restaurant Association to give us the latest from Washington, DC on our ongoing national conversation around taxation of tips, corporate tax legislation, the upcoming Democratic convention and more.

And we do a deep dive on Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ new running mate, and examine his record on core business mode issues like wage, beenefits and unionization.

We’ll talk about those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

We are joined by Colm O’Comartum, the co-founder of public affairs firm 50-State and the former head of the Democratic Governors Association to get his take on the new dynamics of the presidential election and what that means for the top of the ticket as well as Congress, Governors and state legislatures. I think you’ll enjoy his perspective.

And the courts - whether Supreme, federal, or district - have turned our regulatory environment upside down in the last few months. How should the business community react to the new environment and does it change which branch of government should be our focus? We are joined by Angelo Amador, Senior Vice President, Legal Advocacy & Regulatory Counsel for the National Restaurant Asociation - and the head of the Restaurant Law Center - to help us unwind this new knot and give us his insight on what our regulatory relationship with the federal government may look like going forward.

We’ll talk about those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

The Repubican National Convention is in full swing and while there aren’t a whole lot of surprises, there has been a decidely anti-corporate feel to it. Should large companies in general, and their CEOs in particular, be worried about this. We’ll take a look.

And with most Republican elected officials in Milwaukee all week, there hasn’t been much opportunity for policy making so we will wrap it up with a very short legislative scorecard.

The national conversation on tips hit overdrive this week as former president Trump’s new cause - eliminating taxes on tipped income - has found its way into the Republican party platform at the upcoming convention. We’ll discuss what that means to the industry, as well as talk about the big win in Ohio and significant developments in Massachusetts.

And the Supreme Court continues to alter the regulatory environment with regard to how we run our businesses. The latest decision revoking the Chevron doctrine could be the most important one of all. We’ll do a deep dive into that.

We’ll talk about those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

Last week, we discussed how the former and possibly future President of the United States, Donald Trump, suggested that if elected, he would eliminate taxes on tipped income. This week, his loyalists in the U.S. Senate followed suit introducing legislation to do just that. While the bill may ever see the light of day, the conversation itself is putting the labor community and their friends on the blue team in a serious political jam. We’ll discuss.

And Minneapolis continues to be the national hotbed of labor organizing with additional high-end restaurants facing unionization campaigns this week. What is going on up there in the city of lakes? We dive into that.

We’ll talk about those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.