Restaurants to mitigate health care costs by cutting hours

Restaurants to mitigate health care costs by cutting hours

nrn.com

In light of the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, restaurant companies and franchisees are looking into ways to lower costs to save money, including cutting employee hours.

“What we’re seeing is that this health care law puts unique challenges on chain restaurants,” said Rob Green, executive director of the National Council of Chain Restaurants. “The law will have cost implications on a lot of different business sectors, but restaurants and retail are in the bull’s eye.”

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The implications of the affordable care act on restaurant business and retail in general will have significant costs, that different retailers are currently trying to mitigate by running different tests at certain locations (restaurants) by cutting employee hours to figure out an optimal range to offset coming costs.

The retail industry in general supports 1 in 4 American jobs, equating to some 42 million overall. This industry is directly and indirectly responsible for 18% of GDP or 2.48 trillion dollars.

Exactly how the ACA will affect employers is yet to be seen, however it will impose heavy mandates on employers using punitive penalties for non-compliance.





nrn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Daedal


Restaurant employees have seldom ever got insurance and so it will be considered and counted as a part of pay. Restaurants is also one of those industries that can't cut back on employees. You either need your people or you start cutting back. Employees in the restaurant business without the customer base to necessitate your working are doing nothing and would rather be home or moonlighting at another job anyway. If you have the supply of customers you need the staff and if you don't you won't get the staff to stand around without waiting on people.

Originally posted by Daedal


The implications of the affordable care act on restaurant business and retail in general will have significant costs, that different retailers are currently trying to mitigate by running different tests at certain locations (restaurants) by cutting employee hours to figure out an optimal range to offset coming costs.

The retail industry in general supports 1 in 4 American jobs, equating to some 42 million overall. This industry is directly and indirectly responsible for 18% of GDP or 2.48 trillion dollars.

Exactly how the ACA will affect employers is yet to be seen, however it will impose heavy mandates on employers using punitive penalties for non-compliance.





nrn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

True true but by the same token the implications it will have on peoples lives and lengthening them so parents can live long enough to raise their kids and saving emergency room costs and unnecessary treatments will more than make up the inconvenience and extra cost to the poor business owner. Just having your employees show up without calling in sick as often will save these chains money. Restaurants lose money when they have the customers but don't have the staff to accommodate them.

reply to post by newcovenant


My concern would be cutbacks in employee hours. This IMO will have an impact on how families operate. The costs of living surely aren't going down anytime soon and for people living paycheck to paycheck the little cuts may have significant impacts on their daily lives.

In the state I live in, wait staff can be paid as little as $2.13 per hour.. And the non tipped employees? $7.25 per hour. It bears noting that if the evil Federal government would just keep their noses out of folks business... Ga would have a minimum wage of $5.15.

Considering that the vast majority of food service jobs are already at or near minimum wage - and the practice of hiring mostly part time has already been the norm for many years now. What's left to threaten?

Most restaurants and chain retails stores are already operating on skeleton crews. Shop at Wal Mart recently? 50 cash registers - 3 open?

Either this is yet another sham threat in the apparent Republican attempt to extort the vote... or the people in charge really have lost touch and it's time for someone to say that the Emperor has no clothes.

There is no more meat to cut off of the poor.

~Heff

reply to post by Daedal

"In light of the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, restaurant companies and franchisees are looking into ways to lower costs to save money, including cutting employee hours. "

AND

There my friends goes the last bit of customer service. This will make an already painfully slow business even worse.

But hey that doesn't matter...

Originally posted by Daedal
reply to post by newcovenant

 

My concern would be cutbacks in employee hours. This IMO will have an impact on how families operate. The costs of living surely aren't going down anytime soon and for people living paycheck to paycheck the little cuts may have significant impacts on their daily lives.

In any business there is only so much one person can do. Business years ago used to play it safe and employees had time for lunch and perhaps a conversation or two during the course of a day on the job - Now if there is time for a conversation the job description is lengthened and the staff is halved so that every minute on the job is a "working" minute. Fast food as well as any place needs to staff according to how many people they are serving. If the hours are cut it gives the employee a chance to find part time work elsewhere to make up the hours.
Business's already were cutting back on employee hours so they wouldn't qualify for over-time, and benefits their F/T people have. With seniority comes benefits and we were getting to a point where very few employers were offering health care at all. Some kind of affordable health care was needed for everyday people who make up the majority of the country. If businesses didn't want this as an issue I am not sure why everyone did not ask for a public option or single payer system and go that way?

Originally posted by SLAYER69
reply to post by Daedal

 

"In light of the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, restaurant companies and franchisees are looking into ways to lower costs to save money, including cutting employee hours. "

AND

There my friends goes the last bit of customer service. This will make an already painfully slow business even worse.

But hey that doesn't matter...

No it won't. Restaurants have to staff for the amount of business they have and if they can cut hours they were not working hours where those employees made tips. In the chain restaurants people are paid by the hour and if they can cut then they were over staffed. In this business it is already cut to the skin. Only difference is the guests - you and I - are less likely to be served by a contagious and diseased individual because their heath care needs will be tended to. Healthy employees are more economical to run a business with. Sick days cost American business's an estimated ___I don't know but it's a lot. They will save that money as well as lawsuits brought on by customers who got served by that 'sick" person and were injured because he forgot to present their nut allergy card to the chef. Things like that add up.

Very few restaurants and retail stores offer insurance to their employees. Also all of these guys have a productivity level they have to maintain. So if the business is not there someone is going home. Unfortunately in most states ( like Georgia) you are only paid for the time you worked so many times these employees pay to come to work. Companies using healthcare as an excuse to cut back hours are full of it. The only reason a company would cut hours are that the sales do not jusify the labor. This is another divide and conquer tactic. Get informed don't buy this crap. Deny Ignorance.

Why do you people eat in these horrible corporate chains anyhow? Go to a local business and support people who live in your community. The food is better too!

reply to post by newcovenant


What the hell are you going on about?

If they are cutting hours that means less Customer service. They aren't cutting because of excess help or hours. they are cutting to afford the insurance which is a Crock. they are just greedy.

Restaurants and Customers are a symbiotic relationship. Customers want to eat, Restaurants cook and serve. If they cut back on the hours they wont have enough people to serve properly.

The business will suffer once the word get's around about the lousy service due to lack of proper staffing.
.

reply to post by SLAYER69


The health care act won't help the people it pretends to help....it will put more people on government programs....cost the taxpayers more....make what is left of teh middle class much poorer...and likely not improve healthcare for anyone who falls under the program..but it will be a boon for the healthcare industry: BigPharma and BigInsurance....the ones who really want this bill to be enacted.

@newcovenant

"In the chain restaurants people are paid by the hour and if they can cut then they were over staffed. In this business it is already cut to the skin."

This is not true. I worked fast food for two years. Being overstaffed is always a problem because of turnover. Having 45 or 50 people on the schedule constantly, when it only takes 12 per shift to operate always happened because people would quit call off or get fired.

Originally posted by Hefficide


Most restaurants and chain retails stores are already operating on skeleton crews. Shop at Wal Mart recently? 50 cash registers - 3 open?

~Heff

i have been to a wal mart recently and its true. 50 cash registers, 3 open and 90% of the part-time employees in the break room, hiding in the back or strolling around the aisles and parking lot.

Doesent McDonald's give health coverage to all employees?

Originally posted by Hefficide
Most restaurants and chain retails stores are already operating on skeleton crews. Shop at Wal Mart recently? 50 cash registers - 3 open?

~Heff

But it's not just there or even in the private sector.

Wanna talk about the post office>?

I was just there yesterday. 30 people [No Lie] in line, Two working the counter. One goes on her break right as the next customer comes up with a cart of like 20 or more packages. Over the next 1/2 hour 4 different people came out from the back periodically asking if people just needed to drop off already marked mail or packages and received no replies and slithered back into their holes.

None jumped on another station to help out the one cashier working her station at the counter.

reply to post by randomname


Those strolling employees and the ones in back? They're actually following protocol and orders. Wal Mart is a stickler for rules and the place is run like a prison. In the nineties I spent a year in their management program. Think of the worst sort of Orwellian nightmare society you can imagine... and you've got a Wal Mart. Employees don't so much as use the restroom without permission. All those cameras? Sure they help prosecuting shop lifters, but they're mostly there to keep an eye on the worker bees.

If you've ever seen a Wal Mart employee with a blank look, scurrying down an isle, acting like a deer in headlights, avoiding all human contact - it is probably because they've been told to go on break. They have to clock out in the back room... so if they smoke, or want to get a snack - they have to walk through the store. And policy is that they have to help anyone who asks for help, but that time comes out of their break. In other words, if they are off the clock and are approached - with no on duty employees handy to "take up the slack"... they have to help the customer, on their own time, through their own lunch or break.

It was bad enough that I left the company after about eleven months and did so in quite a verbal fashion. It is just the worst I have ever seen any employer treat their work force.

~Heff

reply to post by Daedal


This smells of pre electoion scare tactics. For example Darden foods is in the news saying that they are cutting hours because of Obamacare at some locations yet:

the Obama administration has issued a staggering total of 111 Obamacare waivers (and counting) so far. The list of the dozens of companies and organizations that have been approved for a waiver is very, very deeply buried on the website of the Department of Health & Human Services. In fact, it takes six separate clicks to get to the list. Some of the companies that have been granted waivers include McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD), Darden Restaurants (NYSE

RI) (owners of the Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurant chains), Aetna (NYSE:AET), the United Federation of Teachers Welfare Fund in New York, and Dish Network (NASDAQ

ISH).

Waivers expire in 2014; why the chicken little "sky is falling" scare tactics now? Being naturally suspicious I 'm thinking Darden is trying to maximize profits at workers expense and shifting the blame.

Originally posted by SLAYER69
reply to post by newcovenant

 

What the hell are you going on about?

If they are cutting hours that means less Customer service. They aren't cutting because of excess help or hours. they are cutting to afford the insurance which is a Crock. they are just greedy.

Restaurants and Customers are a symbiotic relationship. Customers want to eat, Restaurants cook and serve. If they cut back on the hours they wont have enough people to serve properly.

The business will suffer once the word get's around about the lousy service due to lack of proper staffing.
.

...And then the place would close and come back stronger.
At least that's what Romney said about the auto companies.

How much customer service have you BEEN getting in the chain restaurants? I guess I am going to the wrong places because mine are mostly self serve and they have the food ready before I can drive the car a few feet.