The American Rescue Plan is in full swing and restaurant owners across the country are, as of this week, taking advantage of the new loan programs. We sit down with Aaron Frazier, the Director of Healthcare & Tax Policy at the National Restaurant Association and get a full debrief on the programs, how to access the loans, and how the Industry is working to make the programs successful. And the corporate elephant in the room this week is Georgia. We’re going to talk about the political situation there, and how, and even if, our industry leaders should engage in this toxic conversation. And California is up to its old tricks again. We’re watching a piece of legislation being pushed by the labor community that takes direct aim at the quick service restaurant sector. We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

Darden Restaurants made news this week with a major announcement on wage increases, including tipped workers and millions of dollars in bonuses for hourly workers. We’ll take a look at its impact not only in the employee marketplace, but in the national political dialogue on wages. And the Restaurant Recovery Fund is ready to launch. We’ll discuss the program, the timelines and what operators need to do to prepare. We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

The Securities & Exchange Commission has begun the process of engaging Corporate America on climate change and laying out the rationale for future oversight. At the same time, major investment firms like BlackRock are pressuring companies on their environmental records and not necessarily from a typical environmental angle but from a financial one, namely mitigating risk. We interview Scot Case, the National Retail Federation’s new Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability and discuss the quickly changing landscape in this space and the pressure on companies. And, once again, the issue of separating benefits from work requirements is back in the national news and quickly changing the dynamics around a traditional tenet of national labor policy. We’ll discuss how the industry fits into this conversation and how it all may play out. We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

We have two phenomenal guests on the pod this week. Phil Wilson from the Labor Relations Institute will join us to discuss organized labor’s most important piece of legislation to pass the U.S. House in generations - the PRO Act - and discuss its chances for passing the Senate, and if unsuccessful, what parts of it could be enacted by regulation. Most importantly, he will discuss the ramifications for employers and what they need to know. He will also give us some insight on the Amazon unionization vote underway in Alabama, and regardless of outcome, what it means to both the labor and business communities. And we will also be joined once again by the smartest guy in restaurant world finance, our friend Michael Halen with Bloomberg Intelligence, to share his insights on how major brands are faring during the pandemic, who was able to innovate to not only survive but thrive, and what the financial outlook is going forward for the industry. We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

This week, researchers from the Universities of Tennessee and Pennsylvania released a study analyzing the impacts of the country’s model UBI experiment in Stockton, CA and they found that Universal Basic Income has been an extremely effective tool in fighting poverty and that it doesn’t disincentivize work. On top of that, the Wall Street Journal this week is calling President Biden’s stimulus package a defacto UBI for many Americans, saying in part, that it does disincentivize work. We’ll discuss the dynamics of the issue and how the restaurant industry fits into all of this. And the heat is turning up on Corporate America’s response to climate change. We’ll discuss the latest announcements by some of the country’s largest employers and how the social politics of the issue are forcing the hands of many companies. And we’ll update you on the latest and greatest regarding the well-publicized unionization effort facing Amazon in Alabama and the unprecedented entrance into the standoff by a sitting American president. We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

The stimulus package, minus the minimum wage increase, is ready for debate on the House floor. Between wages, paid leave, employer liability, and changes to the SBA loan programs, the restaurant and retail business model has been in the spotlight all week. We’ll take a look how the industry fared and its prospects going forward. And the hazard pay conversation came to the forefront this week with two California jurisdictions deciding if restaurant workers should be eligible for the bonus. Spoiler alert - one went one way and one went the other. We’ll take a look at whether or not restaurants will continue to be a target. We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

We interview the publisher of Nation’s Restaurant News, Sarah Lockyer, who helps us celebrate our 200th Working Lunch podcast and gives us her insights on how far the industry has come since our first pod and, more importantly, where she sees the industry going. And the Align team discusses what the political leadership of the industry has gotten right over the past few years since we started this podcast and what we collectively got wrong. We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

We’ll bring you up to speed on the latest and greatest regarding the federal minimum wage conversation including the release of the anticipated CBO report outlining potential impacts of raising the wage to $15/hr as well as the President meeting with the CEOs of major employers to try and sell his relief package and the wage hike. We discuss all of that. And despite the ramifications of the pandemic and the subsequent economic distress, more and more major brands are finding themselves once again in the crosshairs of the animal rights community, most notably on the issues of chicken harvesting and cage-free eggs. We are joined by Will Coggin from Berman and Company, who will share his extensive experience and expertise in this space and provide some solid insight and counsel for corporate brands being faced with these challenges. We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

The U.S. Senate, with Vice-President Harris casting the tie-breaking vote, passed the joint budget resolution that will enable Pres. Biden’s COVID relief package to ultimately be passed under the reconciliation process, meaning a simple majority vote. The House will follow suit almost immediately and while Biden and the restaurant industry were big winners, Bernie Sanders was not. His proposal to include a $15/hr federal wage increase was rejected, and then some. We’ll take a look at all those moving parts. And despite all the focus on corporate behavior and social responsibility, a lot of companies are playing hardball and fighting back on new laws and costly mandates. We’ll take a look at the grocery sector’s fight against hazard pay requirements and how the platform companies are taking the fight to politicians as well. We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.

With the Biden Administration and many states intensifying their COVID-related workplace and workforce health and safety efforts, we sought out expert counsel from Ed Egee, the Vice President of Government Relations & Workforce Development at the National Retail Federation to help us sort it all out as well as discuss other pressing issues for the industry in Washington, DC. And speaking of pressing issues, the Democratic leadership in the U.S. House introduced their legislation increasing the federal minimum wage to $15/hr by 2025, indexing it to inflation thereafter, and, wait for it, eliminating the tip credit. We’’ll unpack all of that and try to clarify for operators what a final product may look like. We’ll discuss those issues and wrap it up with the legislative scorecard.