I am a small business owner from out of the DC area. I do not fault those restaurants, even though I feel badly for their employees.

For around the past 3 years, the recession has hit my business and similar businesses in my area very hard. Our customer base dropped as much as 30% from where it was prior to the recession. We are the most successful of our type of business in our area, and I know that other, similar businesses in our area have been hit harder.

Most in our customer base (blue collar-middle class) are suffering through the recession: lost jobs, lower wages, higher gas prices/utilities/food prices, so raising prices, even a bit, to bring in more revenue is not an option. If we raise our prices, even a bit, customers who are sacrificing to pay for our services will no longer be able to pay. Raising prices will result in lower revenues for us, so we have to hold our prices where they are at.

I don't want to fire my employees, because they are valuable, talented employees who work hard for me and are dedicated to giving their best. My overhead has gone up significantly (for example, my highest electric bill from this past summer was double what the highest bill was last summer, even though we have taken steps to cut back on energy usage). The only option I have been left with is to cut my own salary. I have been working for the past 2 years and not drawing any salary in order to help my family business of over 20 years to make it through the recession. Fortunately, my spouse makes enough that our family is fine.

Just now, as things seem like they might be turning a corner, we have Obamacare looming. I guarantee you that I am will not A) hire any more employees B) will consider cutting back hours/employees to avoid the extra expense C) might consider closing down this once successful family business if A and B do not work.

My story is not unique. It makes me very sad. Business owners are not the demons many of you would like to believe. My employees do not know that I have not drawn a salary, nor do my customers. So please think before you disparage business owners and employers. We have done our share of carrying the burden, and have sacrificed more than you know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was completely foreseeable. Health insurance is a huge cost for employers. I would blame Obama for this, not the employers.

We need a system that doesn't base health insurance on employment.

They don't have to make profits by harming employees, though. They can shift costs to the consumers. Paying a few cents more for a lobster is no big deal.

It might not be a big deal to you, but I bet these companies have done the research and determined that more people on the margin will stop coming to their restaurants if they raise the prices than if they change more of the staff to part-time. I'm sure that if they thought they could charge a buck (or whatever amount) more per lobster and make a greater profit compared to shifting to part-timers they would do so.

That's the problem. The only thing that matters is money. Why not make a smaller profit (still a profit) but treat employees well?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was completely foreseeable. Health insurance is a huge cost for employers. I would blame Obama for this, not the employers.

We need a system that doesn't base health insurance on employment.

Employers have been shifting workers to part time status in order to avoid benefits since the early 80's at least. This is nothing new. Nor is a bunch of employers predicting dire problems due to regulation. I remember when vapor reclaiming fuel pumps were going to drive gas stations out of business. Heard the same schpiel from the guy running the local shell station, how he had been there 30 years and was going to have to close his shop. Never happened.

+1

Economic reality, folks. As much as Obama was to demonize profit, that is the reason people operate business. This will just be the tip of the iceberg.

Anonymous wrote:The title of your post is wrong. It should say:

Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurants to shift more workers to part time to IMPLEMENT ObamaCare.

Agreed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was completely foreseeable. Health insurance is a huge cost for employers. I would blame Obama for this, not the employers.

We need a system that doesn't base health insurance on employment.

They don't have to make profits by harming employees, though. They can shift costs to the consumers. Paying a few cents more for a lobster is no big deal.

It might not be a big deal to you, but I bet these companies have done the research and determined that more people on the margin will stop coming to their restaurants if they raise the prices than if they change more of the staff to part-time. I'm sure that if they thought they could charge a buck (or whatever amount) more per lobster and make a greater profit compared to shifting to part-timers they would do so.

The title of your post is wrong. It should say:

Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurants to shift more workers to part time to IMPLEMENT ObamaCare.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was completely foreseeable. Health insurance is a huge cost for employers. I would blame Obama for this, not the employers.

We need a system that doesn't base health insurance on employment.

Employers have been shifting workers to part time status in order to avoid benefits since the early 80's at least. This is nothing new. Nor is a bunch of employers predicting dire problems due to regulation. I remember when vapor reclaiming fuel pumps were going to drive gas stations out of business. Heard the same schpiel from the guy running the local shell station, how he had been there 30 years and was going to have to close his shop. Never happened.

Sure, and they'll shift more workers because of this new law. It matters to those workers and they won't feel good about it just because it already happened to some other workers.

Anonymous wrote:This was completely foreseeable. Health insurance is a huge cost for employers. I would blame Obama for this, not the employers.

We need a system that doesn't base health insurance on employment.

Employers have been shifting workers to part time status in order to avoid benefits since the early 80's at least. This is nothing new. Nor is a bunch of employers predicting dire problems due to regulation. I remember when vapor reclaiming fuel pumps were going to drive gas stations out of business. Heard the same schpiel from the guy running the local shell station, how he had been there 30 years and was going to have to close his shop. Never happened.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was completely foreseeable. Health insurance is a huge cost for employers. I would blame Obama for this, not the employers.

We need a system that doesn't base health insurance on employment.

They don't have to make profits by harming employees, though. They can shift costs to the consumers. Paying a few cents more for a lobster is no big deal.

It doesn't matter. When you support or pass a law you have to deal with how people will react, not how you want them to react. If you make employees more expensive for employers, there will be fewer employees or, as in this case, "lesser" employees by moving them to part-time.

You can hope and desire til the end of time that businesses will react otherwise but they won't. Pass the law knowing the outcome and accept it or account for it in the law.

Anonymous wrote:This was completely foreseeable. Health insurance is a huge cost for employers. I would blame Obama for this, not the employers.

We need a system that doesn't base health insurance on employment.

They don't have to make profits by harming employees, though. They can shift costs to the consumers. Paying a few cents more for a lobster is no big deal.

I worked for a large retail store back in the 90's. They did the same thing back then. The do this to not have to provide any benefits - health, vacation, etc. It's nothing new and has nothing to do with any current health care laws.

This was completely foreseeable. Health insurance is a huge cost for employers. I would blame Obama for this, not the employers.

We need a system that doesn't base health insurance on employment.

If we want to be supportive of the workers, I wish we could stop saying "Obamacare." Couldn't we say - "these restaurants are going to shift more workers to part time to avoid buying health insurance for them."

Darden Restaurants, which owns these plus more.


http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/10/restaurant-chain-to-move-workers-to-parttime-over-138143.html

Their profits jumped last quarter. Perhaps because of treating employees badly?


http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/morning_call/2012/09/darden-sued-by-workers-over-wages.html

http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2012/09/21/darden-restaurants-posts-jump-in.html?page=all

Not that I'm a fan of these restaurants, but I'd much rather pay more for dinner than have them jerk round their employees. Pap Johns was complaining about having to charge about 15 cents more per pizza to cover new health care coverage. Doesn't sound too burdensome to me.