In an appearance on Fox Business in May, he said that he was “not opposed to raising the minimum wage rationally; I’m opposed to raising it to the point where lower-skilled workers, working-class Americans, young people, minorities, are losing the jobs they need to get on the ladder of success.”

Though he did not explain what a “rational” increase would entail, he opposed the Obama administration’s efforts to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 from $7.25, where it has stood since 2009. That is far below the $15 per hour that many advocates have called for and that a variety of cities and states have enacted in recent years, albeit on a gradual timetable.

Economic research suggests that an increase to the vicinity of $10.10 per hour would have little or no effect on employment in much of the country, though the impact could be larger in low-wage, low-cost areas. Mr. Puzder has raised concerns about the effects in those regions.

On other issues, Mr. Puzder has taken hard-line positions that leave less room for negotiation. Perhaps most prominent is the so-called joint employer doctrine that the Obama administration and its agency appointees have put forth in recent years.

Under that doctrine, large companies that have franchises or hire other companies as contractors are more likely to be held liable for violations of employment laws by those contractors or franchisees. Parent companies typically argue that they have no legal responsibility in these cases.

Mr. Puzder has been unambiguous in his disdain for the new standard. As labor secretary, there are certain immediate steps he could take to undo it, though there are some applications, like to the law governing unions, that would require action by the National Labor Relations Board or federal courts to overturn.</s>President-elect Donald Trump has picked Andrew Puzder, the head of the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast food restaurants, as his nominee for Labor secretary, a source familiar with the decision tells CNN.

Puzder, 66, is a vocal critic of government regulation and opposes a $15 minimum wage, broader overtime pay and the Affordable Care Act.

The Labor Department oversees America's job market, regulates the workplace, and produces statistics like the unemployment rate that underpin economic policy.

Puzder has been the CEO of CKE Restaurants since 2000. He's credited with turning around the Hardee's brand, but his company has been accused of labor violations and fielded complaints about sexist commercials.

His appointment, which would require Senate confirmation, comes at a time when restaurants and other low-wage industries are feeling pressure to increase pay. Puzder would likely resist those pressures as Labor secretary.

The fast food industry in particular has been the target of nationwide protests pushing for a $15 minimum wage, up from the current $7.25.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed in March, Puzder said a $15 minimum wage, mandatory paid sick leave laws and the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, raise costs for employers and force them to rely more on automated technology.

"While the technology is becoming much cheaper, government mandates have been making labor much more expensive," he wrote.

Puzder told the Los Angeles Times in March that he's not opposed to raising the federal minimum wage above $7.25 or pegging it to inflation, though he said a jump to $15 an hour will cost workers their jobs.

Puzder has also been one of the harshest critics of an Obama administration rule that would require workers who make less than $47,500 and work 40 hours per week be paid overtime. The rule was put on hold by a federal judge in November.

"The real world is far different than the Labor Department's Excel spreadsheet," Puzder wrote in a Forbes guest column in May. "This new rule will simply add to the extensive regulatory maze the Obama Administration has imposed on employers, forcing many to offset increased labor expense by cutting costs elsewhere."

Related: Millions may now lose eligibility for overtime after ruling

In 2004, CKE agreed to pay $9 million to settle three class-action lawsuits involving overtime pay. Puzder told the Orange County Register in 2014 that CKE had spent $20 million on overtime lawsuits in California over the previous eight years, and that the company had reclassified managers as hourly workers as a result.

Under Puzder, Hardee's and Carl's Jr. have come under fire for notoriously lewd commercials targeting young men.

A racy ad featuring a bikini-clad Paris Hilton washing a car while eating a Carl's Jr. burger debuted in 2005. Since then, the brand has doubled down on using supermodels to sell hamburgers. A 2015 Super Bowl commercial featuring a seemingly nude Charlotte McKinney was widely panned.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with a beautiful woman in a bikini, eating a burger and washing a Bentley or a pickup truck or being in a hot tub," Puzder told CNNMoney in 2015. "I think there's probably nothing more American."

If confirmed by the Senate, Puzder will take over for Tom Perez, who was nominated by President Obama in 2013.

Perez issued a rule that extended minimum wage and overtime protections to home health care workers, and he pushed for a rule requiring lawyers to disclose the work they do for employers on union negotiations. That rule has also been blocked by a federal judge.

The Labor Department offers job training programs to workers who lose their jobs because of global trade. It can also fine companies for breaking labor laws, such as the minimum wage.

The Labor Department is one of the economy's principal record-keepers through its oversight of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

During his presidential campaign, Trump sought to discredit BLS numbers. He has claimed, falsely, that the published unemployment rate is a "joke" and a "hoax."

In a speech after he won the New Hampshire primary in February, Trump speculated that the unemployment rate was "probably 28, 29, as high as 35. In fact, I even heard recently 42%." The unemployment rate was 4.9% at the time and has since fallen to 4.6%.

The BLS also publishes the monthly jobs report and an an array of data on wages, jobs and industries.

--CNN's Sara Murray and CNNMoney's Danielle Wiener-Bronner and Patrick Gillespie contributed to this report.</s>News that President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Andrew Puzder to be Secretary of Labor has advocates for low-wage workers up in arms.

Puzder is CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast food restaurants.

The fast food industry has been Ground Zero for the movement to raise minimum wages. Four years ago, the Fight for $15 campaign was started on behalf of fast food workers. But it has since expanded to advocate for low-wage workers across industries.

Labor advocates' responses to the news have been scathing.

"Puzder will be there for his low-wage-industry CEO buddies, who are now salivating over the prospect of rolling back the Obama administration's efforts to raise pay for low-wage workers, improve workplace safety, and increase corporate accountability for wage theft and other violations," said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project.

The response from two of Puzder's own employees involved with the Fight for $15 was even more scathing.

"Putting one of the worst fast food CEOs in charge of national labor policy sends a signal to workers that the Trump years are going to be about low pay, wage theft, sexual harassment and racial discrimination. Instead of taking on the rigged economy, it seems like Trump wants to rig it up even more," said Carl's Jr. cook Rogelio Hernandez and Hardee's cashier Lacretia Jones.

Trump's Labor Secretary nominee has been a vocal critic of a $15 minimum wage But he told the Los Angeles Times that he doesn't oppose raising the $7.25 federal minimum wage somewhat and indexing it to inflation.

But going as high as $10.10 an hour -- which Democrats in Congress have proposed -- is too high in his book. In a 2014 op-ed, Puzder noted that the working poor are struggling but asserted that increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 would not improve their situation. Using the fast food business as an example, Puzder argued that jobs would be cut and franchise owners would rely more on technology to process orders.

Related: 4 states just voted to hike their minimum wage

He has also opposed the Obama administration's efforts to make more workers eligible for overtime pay.

How Puzder -- if confirmed -- might directly affect the Fight for $15 campaign isn't immediately clear. But both Owens and Jonathan Schleifer, executive director of The Fairness Project, think it will "intensify the resolve" of workers with the campaign across cities and states.

Their success isn't just measured in the number of places that have approved a $15 minimum wage, but extends to cities and states that have opted to raise their minimum wage past $10, $11 or $12 and indexing it to inflation thereafter. A number of those successes have come through ballot initiatives, which The Fairness Project and other low-wage-worker advocates have pushed when a locale's lawmakers have rejected a higher minimum.

Should Puzder be confirmed, "it redoubles our enthusiasm for using ballot initiatives," Schleifer said.

Just this past Election Day, voters in four states -- Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington -- approved ballot measures that will raise their state minimum wage by between 43% and 60% over the next few years.

Typically, minimum wage measures do well on ballots. Since 2000, 15 states have had a higher minimum wage on the ballot and all of them passed, according to the nonpartisan Initiative and Referendum Institute.

"The Fight for $15 won't back down for one minute in our demands for $15 an hour and union rights for all workers," the two Puzder employees said. "If Trump is going to be a President for the fast food corporations instead of for the fast food workers he is going to be on the wrong side of history."</s>WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name fast-food executive Andrew Puzder, a vocal critic of substantially increasing the minimum wage and an opponent of rules that would make more workers eligible for overtime pay, as head of the Labor Department, according to a Republican briefed on the decision.

Puzder, who runs CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., has been a harsh critic of raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, arguing that it would increase costs for consumers and lead to fewer jobs. He also opposes the recently-delayed Labor Department rule that aimed to make millions more workers eligible for overtime pay.
• December 8, 2016 Editorial: Scott Pruitt is too extreme for EPA post
• December 7, 2016 Trump names Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma attorney general suing EPA on climate change, to head the EPA As the head of a fast-food company, Puzder is a supporter of the approach touted by Trump on the campaign trail that lowering taxes for corporations and the wealthy and loosening regulations for businesses can boost job creation. He is a strong opponent of the Affordable Care Act, which he claims has hurt the restaurant industry because higher health premiums have left consumers with less money to spend.

By bringing in Puzder, Trump is signaling that he may scale back some of regulations introduced by current Labor Secretary Tom Perez. He will have the potential to reverse some of the Obama administration’s most notable efforts to bolster protections for workers, families and retirement savers.

His appointment puts the future of the Labor Department’s overtime rule into question. The rule was halted by a federal judge last month, roughly a week before it was supposed to go into effect. to allow the court more time to come to a final decision. In a Forbes op-ed that ran after the Labor Department finalized the overtime rule in May, Puzder wrote that the rule would “add to the extensive regulatory maze the Obama Administration has imposed on employers,” and that the rule would lead to fewer hours and reduced opportunities for workers.

With the nomination of the fast-food executive, Trump brings another top fundraiser into his cabinet. Puzder supported Trump’s race to the White House financially and served as an economic adviser to his campaign. He and his wife, Deanna, contributed a total of $332,000 to helping Trump get elected, including money given to Trump’s campaign, to joint fundraising committees and to the Republican National Committee, according to the Federal Election Commission.

The Washington Post Philip Rucker contributed to this report.</s>Nothing is more patriotic than a scantily-clad woman digging into a burger.

That's according to Andrew Puzder, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Labor secretary.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with a beautiful woman in a bikini, eating a burger and washing a Bentley or a pickup truck or being in a hot tub," Puzder said in an interview with CNNMoney in 2015. "I think there's probably nothing more American."

Puzder, 66, is the fast food magnate who heads Hardee's and Carl's Jr. restaurants. He's a vocal critic of government regulation and opposes a $15 minimum wage, broader overtime pay and the Affordable Care Act on the grounds such policies hurt business.

Related: Trump taps Andrew Puzder, CEO of Hardee's and Carl's Jr., as Labor secretary

He's also developed a clear advertising strategy: Attractive women sell. Under Puzder, Hardee's and Carl's Jr. have been known for their highly suggestive ads.

A racy spot featuring a bikini-clad Paris Hilton washing a car while eating a Carl's Jr. burger hit screens in 2005. Since then, oversexed ads have been the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. calling card. Kim Kardashian, Kate Upton and Emily Ratajkowski have all made appearances. Many commercials -- such as a 2015 Super Bowl ad featuring a seemingly nude Charlotte McKinney -- have been criticized as sexist, objectifying and offensive.

"I don't have a problem with our ads," he told CNNMoney. "If I did, we wouldn't run them. I have my wife look at them before we run them, generally."

Though Hardee's and Carl's Jr. ads target men ages 18 to 34, they're meant to pull in a larger audience, Puzder said.

"When my son was 13 or 14 years old, he didn't want to eat where the clown, the kids or the pigtails ate," Puzder said. "He wanted to eat where his big brother ate. I'm 64 years old, I want to be a young, hungry guy. Young ladies like to date young, hungry guys."

Related: What a fast food CEO as Labor Secretary means for the Fight for $15

The commercials aren't really focused on sex, he added.

"We're very careful in the ads," he said. "There's no nudity. There's generally not even men and women in the ad. So, there's certainly no sex acts."

To Puzder, the commercials are made in the USA.

"The point of the ad is to emphasize all things American," he said. That's why it shows "a beautiful, young, Sports Illustrated swimsuit model in an American flag bikini, in a hot tub, on a pickup truck that's painted with the American flag, driven by a rodeo bull rider on an aircraft carrier, in front of the Statue of Liberty while fireworks are going off."</s>Christine Owens is the executive director at the National Employment Law Project. The views expressed here are her own.

(CNN) Apparently, lightning does strike twice: President-elect Donald Trump once again has named someone to his Cabinet who stands in almost comic opposition to the work they would be tasked with leading -- and to the promises Mr. Trump made to the American people.

This time, Trump has tapped fast-food magnate and conservative commentator Andrew Puzder to head the Department of Labor, the federal agency responsible for ensuring workplace safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits and other core rights

It's hard to think of anyone less suited for the job of lifting up forgotten workers than Puzder, a billionaire CEO who vocally opposes any meaningful increase in the minimum wage, who talks glibly about replacing workers with machines, and who consistently attacks rules that protect both workers and law-abiding employers.

President-elect Trump campaigned as the champion of workers, but giving the fox the keys to the hen house -- as the expected Puzder nomination does -- is hardly the way uphold the Labor Department's stated mission "to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment."

The contradiction is extreme: Opposition to workers' rights is bread and butter for Puzder. In his new role, Puzder would lead a team tasked with ensuring that employers adhere to basic labor standards. Meanwhile, Puzder's company, CKE Restaurants, parent company of the fast-food chains Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, among others, has been the target of class-action lawsuits alleging failure to fairly compensate managers for overtime.

Both in his work for CKE and in his public commentary, Puzder consistently shows that he considers government protections for working people to be nothing more than an intrusive nuisance. He has been outspoken in his opposition to the Obama administration's updated overtime rules, for example, which would help as many as 12.5 million workers making less than $47,500 annually.

Puzder is quick to blame the government for any problem facing workers, including job loss due to automation—despite the fact that, by his own admission, he and other restaurant industry leaders are the very people choosing to invest in automation . As he told Business Insider earlier this year in describing the allure of automation, "[Machines are] always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there's never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex or race discrimination case."

The statement hints at another issue with his nomination: his company's troubling record of sexist advertising.

But to Puzder, marketing ethics is apparently secondary to profit: "If you don't complain, I go to the head of marketing and say, 'What's wrong with our ads?'... Those complaints aren't necessarily bad for us. What you look at is, you look at sales. And, our sales go up."

Such comments are concerning when you consider that the Labor Department is charged with enforcing discrimination laws for federal contractors, as well as the fact that the labor secretary oversees the Women's Bureau, which was established to represent the needs of working women in the creation and implementation of public policy.

The record isn't complete, of course, and it's up to the Senate to do its job in examining it closely before voting to confirm Mr. Puzder. But the evidence so far indicates that neither working women nor any of America's workers will be his priority as labor secretary. Rather than upholding the Labor Department's crucial responsibility to protect workers, Puzder's comments and conduct suggest he will be focused, first and foremost, on Americans whose interests match his own.
Carl's Jr./Hardee's executive and minimum wage reform critic Andrew Puzder is selected as United States Secretary of Labor.