Seven fast-food restaurants, including McDonald’s, agreed this week to stop their non-poaching business practices. A non-poach agreement prohibits an employee of a franchised restaurant from working at a different restaurant within the chain that is owned by a different franchisee. This practice greatly impacts the economic opportunities for fast-food employees.
The news came a little bit more than a week after 11 attorney generals, including Massachusetts' Maura Healey, announced an investigation into the no-poach agreements at several fast food restaurants.
Philadelphia Attorney General Josh Shapiro told NPRthat close to 80 percent of fast-food operators use this type of agreement. Additionally, Princeton economists Alan Krueger and Orley Ashenfelterpublished a study last year that states that non-poach practices were used by a little more than a quarter of all fast food restaurants in the United States.
In addition to McDonald’s, Arby's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Carl's Jr., Jimmy John's, Auntie Anne’s, and Cinnabon, agreed to end this practice.
“This kind of plantation mentality, we own you, you can’t improve your lot by going across the street and earning still a bad wage," said food critic and Senior Editor at The Atlantic Corby Kummer during an interview with Boston Public Radio Friday. "It is incredible that it exists in modern times,” he said.
Kummer told BPR that fast-food chains use non-poach clauses to please their owners and prevent them from losing employees. “It protects its owners by saying we won’t let somebody desert you for another McDonalds across the street that’s gonna pay your worker a slightly higher wage,” Kummer said.
