We are now seeing yet another form of consequence resulting from Barry "Almighty's" recent re-election victory. With it pretty much a certainty that Obamacare will remain the centerpiece of his first term in power, some in the private sector are becoming inventive in their ways of dealing with it as more and more business owners now balking at the extra costs Obamacare will bring. For instance, Florida based restaurant boss John Metz, who runs approximately 40 Denny's and owns the Hurricane Grill & Wings franchise has decided to offset costs by adding a five percent surcharge to customers' bills and reducing his employees' hours. Ya know, to say in business you gotta do what you gotta do.
With Barry now having been re-elected putting Obamacare now apparently on track to be fully implemented in January 2014, Metz has justified his move by claiming it is 'the only alternative' that he's got if he wants to stay in business. He says, 'I've got to pass on the cost to the customer.' The fast-food business owner is set to hold meetings at his restaurants in December where he will tell his employees, 'that because of Obamacare, we are going to be cutting front-of-the-house employees to under 30 hours, effective immediately.' Claiming that he is not anti-insurance Metz has said that he understands the problems this will cause for his employees, most of which I'm sure voted for Barry.
'I think it's a terrible thing. It's ridiculous that the maximum hours we can give people is 28 hours a week instead of 40,' Metz told the Huffington Post. He went on to say that, 'It's going to force my employees to go out and get a second job.' And it's all because Obamacare requires businesses or franchises with more than 50 workers to offer an approved insurance plan or pay a penalty of $2,000 for each full-time worker over 30 workers. If I was this guy I'd be doing exactly the same thing and wouldn't give it a second thought. My priority would be to stay in business, and if those working for me thought it such a good idea to vote for Barry then they can suffer the consequences of their own stupidity.
Obamacare mandates that only employees working more than 30 hours a week are covered under their employers health insurance plan, so popular chains like Olive Garden and Red Lobster have already begun considering reducing the hours of their workers. 'Obviously, I'd love to cover all our employees under that insurance,' said Metz. 'But to pay $5,000 per employee would cost us $175,000 per restaurant and unfortunately, most of our restaurants don't make $175,000 a year. I can't afford it.' Several other restaurants including Papa John's, Apple Metro and Jimmy John's have also announced plans to skirt Obamacare by reducing employees hours to make them part-time.
Indeed, Metz is adding the surcharge because he believes that eventually firms will be fined for not covering staff who complete over 30-hours in a week. In November, a poll for Kaiser Health Tracking found that only 43 percent of the United States had a favorable opinion of Obamcare, while 39-percent had an unfavorable one. 'Instead of indirectly charging customers by raising prices, he is directly charging and making a political statement,' said Paul Fronstin, director of the health research program at the Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington. He added, 'Potentially 43 percent of this person's customers may find the explicit charge a turnoff, and vote with their feet and their money and choose not to eat there.'
While that maybe true, despite this, Metz has admitted he is willing to take the heat should the decision backfire on him. 'We're trying to get more restaurant operators rallied around the concept of adding a 5 percent surcharge to their bill to cover the costs of Obamacare as opposed to raising prices,' he said. Earlier this week Papa John's CEO John Schnatter told shareholders in a conference call this week that Obamacare would cost the company 11 to 14 cents per pizza, a cost that would be passed on to customers. I'm all in favor of businesses doing whatever they feel they need to do to stay afloat. And I'm sure things are only continue to get worse until folks are working only 10 hours a week.
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