Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

John Yarmuth: Paying the Minimum?

With Election Day around corner, the gloves are coming off in television ads across the country. In Indiana’s third congressional district, Republican Rep. Anne Northrup is accusing Democratic challenger John Yarmuth of paying minimum wage at his family’s restaurant chain, Sonny’s Barbeque.

Yarmuth told Louisville’s Wave3 TV that he belives the minium wage – $5.15 an hour – is “an immoral wage,” but he seems to be absolving himself of responsibility for the workers’ pay based on the fact that Sonny’s is a franchise.

“The company I have an interest in gets royalties based on sales. It has nothing to do with salary; nothing to do with payroll,” Yarmuth reportedly said. He added that no franchise owner in America dicates wages.

Northrup was unconvinced: “He could at least bring up to the partnership that they include that in the franchising agreement. He has not.”

Yarmuth and Northrup are currently in a dead-heat.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.