Hardee’s / Carl’s Jr. CEO on California’s anti-business climate

In a recent brief media appearance, Andy Puzder—the CEO of the parent company of the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. fast food chains—discussed how difficult it is to do business in California’s regulatory environment. Here is my summary of a few of the things that he brought up:

• Due to regulations, it takes on average 240 days to build a restaurant in California compared to the 60 days it takes in Texas, or even the 125-175 days it takes in Russia.
• Because the state prevents managers from performing too many “non-managerial tasks,” he has to pay his managers in California restaurants as hourly employees so that they can also legally pitch in on things such as food preparation or working the register when an additional hand is needed.
• And because the state of California has severe restrictions on the working arrangements of hourly employees—mandatory break times, mandatory overtime pay, etc.—he has had to regrettably fire managers who were working too hard. It did not make business sense to pay any one employee that much overtime.

You can watch the whole interview here or by clicking on the embedded video below.

Puzder also indicated that his company is focusing on building new restaurants in states with fewer regulations, such as Texas and Tennessee, rather than in California. I wonder how many other businesses are choosing to not locate in California due to its regulatory environment?

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