Fox Business provided a platform for a corporate lobbyist with clients in the fast food industry to dismiss striking workers' demands for higher wages without disclosing his industry ties.

Labor organizers in seven cities across the U.S. planned the largest employee walk out of the year for July 29. Thousands of employees in Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Flint, Detroit, and New York City will take part in what is potentially the largest fast food worker mobilization in history demanding better wages and stronger benefits from some of the country's largest and most profitable corporations.

On the July 29 edition of Fox Business' Varney & Co., host Stuart Varney interviewed Richard Berman of the Employment Policies Institute to provide a critical analysis of the walk outs. Berman dismissed the idea of raising fast food employee wages, claiming that the hike in pay would result in lower employment:

BERMAN: At $15 an hour many, I won't say a majority but many fast food restaurants are out of business, the business model just does not support those kind of wages. If people are feeling that they are not being paid adequately, then they have got to find a job someplace else

Berman, a corporate lobbyist, was allowed to provide this input without disclosing his organization's ties to the fast food industry. According to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the Employment Policies Institute is one of many front groups associated with Berman which provide political cover for clients in the restaurant, hospitality, alcohol, and tobacco industries. Berman specializes in a so-called “aggressive media outreach” approach intended to “change the debate” in favor of major clients.

Leading up to his interview with Berman, Varney also promoted an advertisement by MinimumWage.com, an Employment Policies Institute subsidiary, which falsely claims that the federal minimum wage kills jobs and replaces workers with machine automation. Fox and other right-wing media outlets have a long history of championing false attacks on living wages. In April, Fox News used similar tactics to criticize a previous fast food worker strike in New York City.