The American Franchise Act and the Future of American Entrepreneurship: A Four-Part Series from MSA Worldwide

Few issues before Congress right now matter more to franchising’s day-to-day operating reality than joint-employer liability. The American Franchise Act — advanced by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and now under Senate consideration — would set a franchise-specific standard for when a franchisor can be treated as a joint employer of a franchisee’s workforce under the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. How Congress resolves that question will shape what franchisors can safely offer franchisees in training, technology, and operational support for years to come.

Michael Seid, Managing Director of MSA Worldwide, and member of IFA Board of Directors, examines the Act and its stakes in a four-part series. The series lays out what the bill actually says and why he believes a franchise-specific rule is justified (Part One); works through the legal distinction between enforcing brand standards and exercising employer control (Part Two); engages directly with the strongest arguments made against the bill by labor advocates and organizers (Part Three); and closes with the broader case for franchising as a practical, if imperfect, path into business ownership (Part Four). Throughout, Seid argues for a clear line: franchisors should answer for the employment decisions they actually make, and franchisees should retain the independence — and the responsibility — that comes with owning the business.

The series represents Seid’s own analysis and professional viewpoint on active, contested legislation. Readers who want the fuller legal and legislative detail behind the debate can find it in the four articles below.

Read the Series from these links:

Part One: The American Franchise Act Is About Who Owns the Business
What the bill says, and why Seid argues a franchise-specific joint-employer standard is justified.

Part Two: Brand Standards Are Not Employment Decisions
How courts and regulators have drawn — and sometimes blurred — the line between brand enforcement and employer control.

Part Three: The Progressive Case Against Franchising — and Why Congress Should Reject It  
A direct look at the labor movement’s argument against the Act, and Seid’s response to it.

Part Four: Franchising Is America’s Entrepreneurial Ladder — If We Keep the Rungs in Place
The closing case for passage, framed around franchising’s role in business formation and ownership.