When you eat at McDonald's, it's unlikely that you think about which franchisee owns that location.So when it comes to employees of these chains, why does that matter at all?.For employees at risk of having their rights as workers abused, it matters quite a bit.A federal court found that employees of franchisee-owned locations of a chain can now sue the brand's parent company.Over the past few decades, businesses have increasingly outsourced and subcontracted many of their core responsibilities to intermediary entities, instead of hiring workers directly, New York Attorney General's Office.And that means these smaller companies are more likely to violate wage and hour laws.After this ruling, huge employers won't be able to hide behind the smaller companies anymore