Published
November 03, 2017
Today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and International Franchise Association (IFA) launched an ad campaign urging Congress to pass the Save Local Business Act (H.R. 3441). The effort includes a new TV ad, currently airing in the Washington, D.C., metro area, accompanied by digital ads running nationwide.
The ad features Danny Farrar, a U.S Army veteran and the founder of SOLDIERFIT franchise, a unique, functional fitness program with locations in the Maryland and Washington, DC area. Farrar is one of 28 small business owners who have testified in front of Congress on the joint employer issue over the last two years.
The message to Congress is simple: government shouldn’t make it harder to start a small business.
The Save Local Business Act, which has 112 bipartisan cosponsors, would clarify that businesses can only be found to be joint employers under the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act if they exercise direct control over the same set of employees.
In 2015, the National Labor Relations Board threw out a longstanding standard for determining joint employer status and replaced it with a vague and sweeping definition that makes businesses liable for workplaces they don’t control, and workers they don’t employ. The ad points out that the decision makes it harder for small businesses to expand by undermining the 733,000 franchise businesses across the country, which contribute 7.6 million jobs and $404 billion to America’s economy.
In early October, the U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee passed the Save Local Business Act, and it currently awaits a vote by the full House and Senate.
About the authors
Glenn Spencer
Spencer oversees the Chamber’s work on immigration, retirement security, traditional labor relations, human trafficking, wage hour and worker safety issues, EEOC matters, and state labor and employment law.
