ObamaCare mandates any business with 50 or more full time employees must offer basic healthcare to those employees. (ObamaCare defines full time as 30 or more hours a week.) This is not leaving a good taste in the mouths of the restaurant industry as many ownership groups and chains plan to slash full time jobs to part time and eliminate others altogether if the installation of ObamaCare proceeds as planned. In other words, if Barack Obama is re-elected, restaurant employees will lose hours and jobs.
Darden is the world's largest casual dining company and owners of Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Longhorn, Smokey Bones and Bahama Breeze. They have already announced plans to trim as many full time jobs as possible to part time on a nationwide level to avoid qualifiying for the 50 full time employee mandate set by ObamaCare. They are already doing test runs on this method in undisclosed areas to make any necessary adjustments before expanding.
Now, also consider 42% of Darden's employees are minorities. So once again, the party which claims to champion minority rights and causes has once again caused more stress and hardship for these families and communities.
Denny's restaurant chain has an even high percentage of minority employees at 61%.
Fast food chains will also trim their full time employees and operate primarily with part time staff. McDonald's is leading the way and has already started this in many restaurants. Peter Bensen, McDonald's Chief Financial Officer, believes ObamaCare could cost $10,000-$30,000 per franchise annually and reach approximately $400 million in annual costs. For a fast food chain which heavily promotes its dollar menu and exrtra value menu, keeping costs down is a must and the cost cutting will be making sure individual franchises do not exceed 50 full time employees.
White Castle is another fast food chain which has announced plans similar to McDonad's and Quizno's and Burger King have discussed the option of slowing expansion because potential owners now believe it will no longer be as profitable or cost efficient to open a franchise.
Papa John's has the most interesting approach as they claim it might be cheaper to simply pay the fine for not offering health insurance than to actually offer health insurance. They would raise prices on all menu items 11-15 cents to cover the cost of paying these fines. (All restaurants will use ObamaCare as an excuse to raise menu prices regardless if they qualify for the mandate or not, you can believe that.)
Some critics of the restaurant industry's tactic believe the lack of full time employees will hurt quality of service. That is not true. As as a former restaurant employee, I can assure you a staff made up of almost entirely part time employees will not change quality of service. It just means there will be a more frequent rotation of employees throughout the day.
The potential changes for restaurant employees is just another negative result stemming from the government sticking its nose where it does not belong. Within the restaurant industry, ObamaCare will only accomplish smaller paychecks for hard working people.
This election is very important for those within the restaurant industry. I will never be pompous enough to tell anyone how to vote, but I do ask all of you who work in the restaurant industry or have family who works in the industry to carefully evaluate who you plan to vote for on November 6 because your family's menu is at stake.
