Obamacare strikes again: Wendy's cuts hours

[_bcspace]

WOWT-TV reports that nearly 300 employees at 11 Wendy’s locations in the Omaha area will have their hours reduced to 28 hours a week because the franchise owner says he can’t afford to pay his employees health care.

“It has a huge effect on me and pretty much everybody that I work with,” employee T.J. Growbeck told the station. “I’m hoping that I can get some sort of promotion because then I would get my hours, but everybody is shooting for that because of the hours being cut.”

Gary Burdette, vice president of operations for the local franchise, told WOWT-TV that he can’t afford to keep the fast-food restaurants open if he has to pay for his employees’ health care.

The president’s Affordable Health Care Act requires businesses to pay health care for employees that work more than 32 hours a week.

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/01/09/wendys-franchisee-owner-blames-obamacare-for-cutting-back-employees-hours/

[_beastie]

This reminds me of Papa Johns, whose founder complained he'd have to charge fourteen whole cents more a pizza to provide health care coverage for his employees. Would Wendys have to charge a dime more for a burger? Three more cents for fries? A nickel more for a shake? Tell us, tell us, what new horrors await??????

In the meantime, what is the cost to us ALREADY of Wendys' and Papa Johns' employees not having health care? Their children are likely already on Medicare, and the adults probably go to the ER when they have to, and then the hospital raises prices on everyone else to cover that care.

by the way, as has already been discussed on this board, this dodge won't even work. Part time employees' hours are still counted in the total.

But Wendys can now enjoy the same negative backlash that Olive Garden and Red Lobster has.

It is true, however, that companies that have been enjoying record high profits due to cutting labor costs will have to change their policies. Personally, I think that's a good thing.

[_krose]

by the way, as has already been discussed on this board, this dodge won't even work. Part time employees' hours are still counted in the total.

Exactly.

Also, why would these employees be getting their hours cut back now, when the mandate doesn't take effect until 2014?

[_beastie]

by the way, as has already been discussed on this board, this dodge won't even work. Part time employees' hours are still counted in the total.

Exactly.

Also, why would these employees be getting their hours cut back now, when the mandate doesn't take effect until 2014?

in my opinion, it's part of a negative PR campaign meant to decrease public support of Obamacare. These businesses have, through their cost-cutting efforts that have negatively impacted their labor forces for years, increased their profit margins and they don't want to give that up. They don't care that the rest of society bears the burden of these uninsured workers, and they hope if they threaten to cut workers enough the public will rise up and protest Obamacare. This is just my opinion.

Going by the negative public reaction towards Papa Johns, and his subsequent retraction, I don't think it will work. Of course, Papa John made a huge mistake by admitting that pizza costs would only have to increase by 14 cents to cover the additional costs of health care.

[_krose]

Yeah, didn't they learn anything from watching the Red Lobster fiasco?

The thing is, this kind of nonsense hurts all the other franchisees too, like the backlash against Denny's when one franchisee came up with a stupid idea. People stopped going to any Denny's establishment, not just the ones owned by that particular idiot. BC's own headline above said "Wendy's cuts hours," even though this is just one d-bag who runs 11 joints in Nebraska. All other Wendy's will share in any backlash.

[_Jason Bourne]

THere is another solution for the employer. Cut pay to equal what they now have to pay for the health insurance. I am not sure what the cost will be to my company of this. We have prety good health care for our employees now. We do not pay all of it but we pay a large part. If we have to kick in more $ for their insurance we do have the option of reducing base salaries should we so desire. Not saying we would. But there are options.

[_ajax18]

I wasn't aware that Wendy's paid more than minimum wage. Unless fast food becomes a giant black market for illegal and undocumented labor not subject to taxation like the construction industry, I would conclude that the price of a burger and fries would have to increase.