Minimum wages are increasing across the country. This is good news for people working in the service industry, but means business owners and restaurant chains sometimes have to spend more money on labor, or cut staffs. Many food chains and restaurants have been lobbying Congress to stop or slow increases in minimum wages. Below are the companies that have lobbied Congress about minimum wage issues and bills.

There are 1.8 million foreign-born workers in the United States restaurant industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many are undocumented or in the process of becoming citizens. But the path to citizenship is rocky and becoming stricter. As the U.S. government tries to reform the system, restaurants are keeping an eye on how immigration reform might affect their employees, both undocumented immigrants and those with legal work status. One controversial measure is the E-Verify system, which uses an electronic database to determine workers' immigration status. Some states require employers to use the system, while others don't. But many restaurant lobbyists are advocating for a more universal approach to verification. Here are the companies that have lobbied about immigration reform and systems like E-Verify.

While President Barack Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (now better known as “Obamacare”) aimed to make everyday people’s lives healthier and more affordable to sustain, the law increased pressure on business owners. One of the vexing parts of the bill for business owners is the employer mandate, which defines full-time employment as 30 hours per week, instead of 40. Many food chains are lobbying for the latter, in addition to other changes to federal health care mandates. Below are some of the companies lobbying health care issues.

In 2015, the Food and Drug Administration finalized new menu labeling rules that require restaurants to add caloric and nutritional information to menus. Violators could face tough penalties. The House of Representatives passed the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act in February 2016. The act proposes that nutrition labeling laws be changed to allow restaurants that receive the majority of their orders online to display nutrition information exclusively on their websites. Below are the menu labeling and general nutrition-driven measures some restaurant chains on our list have been lobbying about.

If it were up to business owners, many companies would do or say whatever they could to get people to buy their products. Children can be particularly vulnerable to clever marketing tactics, especially when it involves junk food. The Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Food Marketed to Children was tasked by the U.S. Government to recommend guidelines for advertisers marketing to children. But many food companies advocated for less restrictive rules. Meanwhile, food companies also have to contend with childhood obesity and laws designed to prevent it. Here are the food chains on our list that have lobbied about regulations on marketing to children.

As the United States tries to amend its tax systems, corporate tax reform has become a priority for many businesses. Changes to local and federal corporate tax policies could make it easier or more encouraging for businesses to operate. Tax issues are of the most-lobbied issues in the restaurant industry. Here are the tax issues and bills chains on our list have lobbied.

The National Labor Relations Board is responsible for regulating elections for unions and monitoring workers' rights. But some companies aren't always supportive of unions, or the NLRB's attempts to make it easier for employees to form them. Here are the union and NLRB-related issues food chains have lobbied for.

Some businesses make efforts to give back to communities. Sometimes giving back can be in a company's vested interest. Here are food chains that have placed their lobbying activity under "Civil Rights and Civil Liberties," or have lobbied bills that give back.

Running a restaurant or business can use many natural resources and energy. It can also produce a lot of waste. Meanwhile the U.S. government has implemented fuel and energy laws for businesses. Some of those laws can be restrictive or have adverse effects on the restaurant businesses. For example, many restauranteurs see the the Renewable Fuel Standard's mandate that corn-based ethanol be used in gasoline, as increasing an over-use of corn, which has become harder and more expensive for restaurants to obtain. Below are food chains that have lobbied over energy, fuel and environmental issues.

Corn is an important resource for restaurants: It’s used for food, livestock feed, and oil (when it’s turned into ethanol, a fuel made from corn and other plant matter). But a history of ethanol subsidies — which provide tax breaks to ethanol producers in an effort to encourage more creation of renewable energy — and recent measures requiring corn be used for biofuel are making restaurant companies compete with the biofuel industry for corn. The result is higher prices for business owners and, ultimately, consumers. Below are the companies that have lobbied over ethanol-related issues.

When lobbyists report their activities to Congress, they can choose from 76 categories to describe the issue they are lobbying. Lobbyists working on behalf of the restaurant industry most commonly target categories like taxes, health issues, and industry regulations, but different chains invest more time and money in different issues. Below are lists of the top five categories that 10 top American food chains lobby.