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> 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> Fast-food executive Andrew Puzder withdrew his nomination to head the Labor Department on Wednesday as his support on Capitol Hill faltered. Facing criticism from both sides of the aisle, Puzder became the first Trump Cabinet pick whose nomination failed.



"After careful consideration and discussions with my family, I am withdrawing my nomination for Secretary of Labor. I am honored to have been considered by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Labor and put America's workers and businesses back on a path to sustainable prosperity. I want to thank President Trump for his nomination. I also thank my family and my many supporters—employees, businesses, friends and people who have voiced their praise and hopeful optimism for the policies and new thinking I would have brought to America as Secretary of Labor. While I won't be serving in the administration, I fully support the President and his highly qualified team."



Ahead of his scheduled confirmation hearing on Thursday, which had been delayed several times, it became less clear Puzder had support from his own party, facing pressure to withdraw. Several Republican senators, including Maine's Susan Collins, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, Georgia's Johnny Isakson and South Carolina's Tim Scott, signaled trouble by saying they were undecided on Puzder.

In a statement responding to Puzder's withdrawal, Scott said, "As revelations regarding paying employees in cash, illegal immigration, and comments regarding some of the American workforce came to light, I developed serious concerns regarding his nomination." Scott said he informed Senate GOP leadership about his reluctance to support Puzder.

Puzder has faced a range of criticisms, from his record running the Hardee's and Carl's Jr.'s fast-food chains to old allegations — since retracted — of domestic abuse made by his ex-wife. More recently, Puzder disclosed he employed a housekeeper who was not in the country legally. Labor unions, which had planned to protest his nomination outside the Senate offices where the hearing was to be held, have argued a Puzder-led Labor Department would undermine their efforts to raise the federal minimum wage, expand the eligibility for overtime pay and enforce wage and hour violations, among other things.

Puzder, a corporate attorney by training, was first a lawyer for CKE Restaurants, which operates Hardee's, Carl's Jr., Green Burrito and Red Burrito restaurants. He helped founder Carl Karcher settle an insider trading case with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Then, after the chain fell into financial trouble following its acquisition of Hardee's in the late 1990s, Puzder helped turn the company around and in 2000 was named CEO.

As CEO, and later as a Trump campaign adviser, Puzder has been outspoken about his views on labor policy, contributing to newspaper opinion pages and on television, discussing issues such as immigration. During the Republican presidential primaries, Puzder advocated creating a path to legal status for unauthorized workers living in the U.S. He endorsed a more moderate "comprehensive immigration reform," similar to what candidates Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio were proposing at the time.

That endorsement won him critics from the right, who want the Trump administration to make good on promises to get tougher on illegal immigration and crack down to deport those in the country illegally.

In an opinion piece titled "No to Puzder" in the National Review published Feb. 15, the conservative magazine wrote: "The case for his confirmation has diminished to the point of disappearing."

The most vocal critics, however, have pointed to his industry's record at the very department he would lead.

For the fast-food industry overall, during the 2016 federal fiscal year, the agency found violations in 86 percent of the 1,300 cases it investigated for wage theft, or for unpaid overtime. CKE Restaurants had one of the lowest incidents of reported cases, faring relatively well in an industry that came in for a lot of criticism under the Obama administration.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, said Puzder would not have enforced labor laws against his own industry. "How can he possibly go out and defend workers," he said, arguing the agency should be headed by someone with a history of trying to protect the interests of workers. </s> Fast-food executive Andrew Puzder withdrew his nomination to head the Labor Department on Wednesday as his support on Capitol Hill faltered. Facing criticism from both sides of the aisle, Puzder became the first Trump Cabinet pick whose nomination failed.



"After careful consideration and discussions with my family, I am withdrawing my nomination for Secretary of Labor. I am honored to have been considered by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Labor and put America's workers and businesses back on a path to sustainable prosperity. I want to thank President Trump for his nomination. I also thank my family and my many supporters—employees, businesses, friends and people who have voiced their praise and hopeful optimism for the policies and new thinking I would have brought to America as Secretary of Labor. While I won't be serving in the administration, I fully support the President and his highly qualified team."



Ahead of his scheduled confirmation hearing on Thursday, which had been delayed several times, it became less clear Puzder had support from his own party, facing pressure to withdraw. Several Republican senators, including Maine's Susan Collins, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, Georgia's Johnny Isakson and South Carolina's Tim Scott, signaled trouble by saying they were undecided on Puzder.

In a statement responding to Puzder's withdrawal, Scott said, "As revelations regarding paying employees in cash, illegal immigration, and comments regarding some of the American workforce came to light, I developed serious concerns regarding his nomination." Scott said he informed Senate GOP leadership about his reluctance to support Puzder.

Puzder has faced a range of criticisms, from his record running the Hardee's and Carl's Jr.'s fast-food chains to old allegations — since retracted — of domestic abuse made by his ex-wife. More recently, Puzder disclosed he employed a housekeeper who was not in the country legally. Labor unions, which had planned to protest his nomination outside the Senate offices where the hearing was to be held, have argued a Puzder-led Labor Department would undermine their efforts to raise the federal minimum wage, expand the eligibility for overtime pay and enforce wage and hour violations, among other things.

Puzder, a corporate attorney by training, was first a lawyer for CKE Restaurants, which operates Hardee's, Carl's Jr., Green Burrito and Red Burrito restaurants. He helped founder Carl Karcher settle an insider trading case with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Then, after the chain fell into financial trouble following its acquisition of Hardee's in the late 1990s, Puzder helped turn the company around and in 2000 was named CEO.

As CEO, and later as a Trump campaign adviser, Puzder has been outspoken about his views on labor policy, contributing to newspaper opinion pages and on television, discussing issues such as immigration. During the Republican presidential primaries, Puzder advocated creating a path to legal status for undocumented workers living in the U.S. He endorsed a more moderate "comprehensive immigration reform," similar to what candidates Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio were proposing at the time.

That endorsement won him critics from the right, who want the Trump administration to make good on promises to get tougher on illegal immigration and crack down to deport those in the country illegally.

In an opinion piece titled "No to Puzder" in the National Review published Feb. 15, the conservative magazine wrote: "The case for his confirmation has diminished to the point of disappearing."

The most vocal critics, however, have pointed to his industry's record at the very department he would lead.

For the fast-food industry overall, during the 2016 federal fiscal year, the agency found violations in 86 percent of the 1,300 cases it investigated for wage theft, or for unpaid overtime. CKE Restaurants had one of the lowest incidents of reported cases, faring relatively well in an industry that came in for a lot of criticism under the Obama administration.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, said Puzder would not have enforced labor laws against his own industry. "How can he possibly go out and defend workers," he said, arguing the agency should be headed by someone with a history of trying to protect the interests of workers. </s> Fast food executive Andrew Puzder withdrew his nomination to head the Labor Department on Wednesday as his support on Capitol Hill faltered. Facing criticism from both sides of the aisle, Puzder became the first Trump Cabinet pick whose nomination failed.



"After careful consideration and discussions with my family, I am withdrawing my nomination for Secretary of Labor. I am honored to have been considered by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Labor and put America's workers and businesses back on a path to sustainable prosperity. I want to thank President Trump for his nomination. I also thank my family and my many supporters—employees, businesses, friends and people who have voiced their praise and hopeful optimism for the policies and new thinking I would have brought to America as Secretary of Labor. While I won't be serving in the administration, I fully support the President and his highly qualified team."



Ahead of his scheduled confirmation hearing on Thursday, which had been delayed several times, it became less clear Puzder had support from his own party, facing pressure to withdraw. Several Republican Senators, including Maine's Susan Collins, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, Georgia's Johnny Isakson, and South Carolina's Tim Scott signaled trouble by saying they were undecided on Puzder.

In a statement responding to Puzder's withdrawal, Scott said, "As revelations regarding paying employees in cash, illegal immigration, and comments regarding some of the American workforce came to light, I developed serious concerns regarding his nomination." Scott said he informed Senate GOP leadership about his reluctance to support Puzder.

Puzder has faced a range of criticisms, from his record running the Hardee's and Carl's Jr.'s fast-food chains, to old allegations — since retracted — of domestic abuse made by his ex-wife. More recently, Puzder disclosed he employed a housekeeper who was not in the country legally. Labor unions, which had planned to protest his nomination outside the Senate offices where the hearing was to be held, have argued a Puzder-led Labor Department would undermine their efforts to raise the federal minimum wage, expand the eligibility for overtime pay, and enforce wage and hour violations, among other things.

Puzder, a corporate attorney by training, was first a lawyer for CKE Restaurants, which operates Hardee's, Carl's Jr., Green Burrito and Red Burrito restaurants. He helped founder Carl Karcher settle an insider trading case with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Then, after the chain fell into financial trouble following its acquisition of Hardee's in the late 1990s, Puzder helped turn the company around and in 2000 was named CEO.

As CEO, and later as a Trump campaign advisor, Puzder has been outspoken about his views on labor policy, contributing to newspaper opinion pages and on television, discussing issues such as immigration. During the Republican presidential primaries, Puzder advocated creating a path to legal status for undocumented workers living in the U.S. He endorsed a more moderate "comprehensive immigration reform," similar to what candidates Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio were proposing at the time.

That endorsement has won him critics from the right, who want the Trump administration to make good on promises to get tougher on illegal immigration and crack down to deport those in the country illegally.

In an opinion piece titled "No to Puzder" in the National Review published Feb. 15, the conservative magazine wrote: "The case for his confirmation has diminished to the point of disappearing."

The most vocal critics, however, have pointed to his industry's record at the very department he would lead.

For the fast-food industry overall, during the 2016 federal fiscal year, the agency found violations in 86 percent of the 1,300 cases it investigated for wage theft, or for unpaid overtime. CKE Restaurants had one of the lowest incidents of reported cases, faring relatively well in an industry that came in for a lot of criticism under the Obama administration.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, said Puzder would not have enforced labor laws against his own industry. "How can he possibly go out and defend workers," he said, arguing the agency should be headed by someone with a history of trying to protect the interests of workers. </s> President Trump is expected to announce his replacement for labor secretary on Thursday. His earlier pick, fast-food executive Andrew Puzder, withdrew his nomination on Wednesday after losing support from members of both parties.

In a congressional listening session Thursday morning, Trump said the "man" he will be announcing is a "great person."

Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants — including Hardee's and Carl's Jr., had been scheduled for a confirmation hearing on Thursday after multiple delays. As NPR's Yuki Noguchi has reported, Puzder faced criticism for his management of the company and for more personal issues, including a now-retracted domestic abuse allegation from his wife and hiring a housekeeper who came to the U.S. illegally.

Among those rumored to be next up for the labor secretary position was Catherine Templeton, former secretary of South Carolina's Labor, Licensing and Regulation Department. Trump's comment Thursday about the nominee being a man apparently puts her out of the running.

Other contenders, as reported by CNBC, include Peter Kirsanow, who formerly served on the National Labor Relations Board; R. Alexander Acosta, also a former member of the NLRB; and Joseph Guzman, a labor relations professor at Michigan State University. </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. </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> Andy Puzder, President Donald Trump's nominee for labor secretary, withdrew his nomination on Wednesday amid growing questions about his business record and past personal issues, which drew scrutiny from senators on both sides of the aisle.

Puzder, the head of CKE Restaurants, which owns Hardee's and Carl's Jr., came under harsh criticism from Democrats and liberal groups for his opposition to raising the minimum wage, previous controversial comments and the racy ads his properties have used to promote the fast-food chains.

Personal issues also complicated the nomination. A 27-year-old video from "The Oprah Winfrey Show" surfaced in which his ex-wife made domestic abuse allegations. The Oprah Winfrey Network released the video, and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions provided several viewings for committee members.

But it was Republicans who toppled Puzder. On the day before his confirmation hearing was expected to take place, more Republicans withheld support, saying that they'd like to wait until they hear from him in the hearing.

"After careful consideration and discussions with my family, I am withdrawing my nomination for Secretary of Labor. I am honored to have been considered by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Labor and put America's workers and businesses back on a path to sustainable prosperity," Puzder said in a statement posted on his website.

Puzder is the first of Trump's cabinet nominees to withdraw his nomination as his passage in the Senate became more tenuous.

He came under fire from Democrats concerned about his labor practices as CEO of a company that hires mostly low-wage workers and growing concern among Republicans because of his checkered personal past and his hiring of an undocumented worker in his home.

"This is a nominee, who probably is best suited, in terms of experience, knowing what to do at the Department of Labor and how to get the yoke of federal regulations off of everybody. But obviously we'll bring up one or two concerns," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee with oversight of his confirmation. "I'd like to support him, but I want to go through the hearing."

Roberts was just one of the half dozen Republicans on the committee, which hosts 12 members of the GOP, to express reservations.

Some conservatives also took issue with Puzder's immigration stance, saying it is at odds with Trump. His family also employed an undocumented worker as a housekeeper, though Puzder said he was unaware she was in the country illegally.

Democrats, reinforced by allies in labor unions, pointed to the high number of complaints by women employees who work for his company. They also took issue with his opposition to minimum wage, overtime protections and paid sick days. They also say he objectified women with his racy television commercials.

Puzder has been unenthusiastic about the grueling process of revealing personal and financial information to the Senate for confirmation. His record has been scoured and his workplace practices have been highly criticized.

His confirmation hearing was postponed four times because he failed to turn in the required paperwork.

Democrats and allied groups fiercely opposed Puzder. They bought television advertisements opposing him, including one that launched Wednesday in Maine and Alaska to target Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.

"There is some good news today for women and workers in America," said Sen. Patty Murray, top Democrat on the HELP Committee, on the Senate floor.

The bar to defeat a nominee has dramatically risen because of rule changes in 2013 that allow cabinet nominees to pass the Senate with the support of 51 senators instead of 60, meaning it takes bipartisan opposition to defeat a nominee.

Labor unions also celebrated his withdrawal. Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, said Puzder's withdrawal is "great news" for workers.

"We rallied in towns and cities across the country, flooded Senate offices with calls and e-mails and highlighted Puzder's terrible track record. The American people want a Labor Secretary who will hold employers accountable for paying a fair wage and providing a safe workplace while ensuring our right to a voice on the job," Trumka said.

President Donald Trump is now tasked with naming a new labor secretary.

If President Trump is remotely serious about standing up for workers, he will nominate someone for Labor Secretary that champions workers' rights rather than suppresses them," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
Carl's Jr./Hardee's executive and minimum wage reform critic Andrew Puzder is selected as United States Secretary of Labor.