Papa John’s CEO, John Schnatter, says that, since President Obama has been re-elected and it is unlikely that the Affordable Care Act will be repealed, he will reduce the hours his employees work per week. Instead of raising the cost of a pizza by fifteen cents, Schnatter is, instead, reducing employees hours so that he doesn’t meet the requirements to offer his employees health care. This allows him to pass the cost of health care onto his employees, something they will struggle to afford since Schnatter will be reducing the amount of time they are working.

Schnatter went on to say he’s neither in support of, nor against the Affordable Care Act, even admitting that “the good news is 100 percent of the population is going to have health insurance.” But he’s not the only one in the chain restaurant industry to admit that workers hours may be reduced, since Obamacare mandates that only employees that work more than 30 hours per week are covered under their employers health insurance plan. For example, Darden restaurants, the parent company of Olive Garden and Red Lobster, has already experimented with reducing workers hours in anticipation of the legislation.

Instead of doing the right thing and helping out your fellow human beings, these companies are choosing to screw over their already low paid employees. Papa John, who makes more than a billion dollars a year in revenue, his net worth is $600 million and literally lives in a castle with a moat, thinks the best course of action is to screw over his employees instead of raise the price of his pizza by a few cents.

Others have responded to the added costs of Obamacare more harshly, including Applebee’s franchisee owner Zane Tankel who said his company won’t hire new workers because of the law. Just this week, a Georgia business owner also claimed he cut employees due to Obamacare and in fact had specifically laid off those who he thought had voted for President Obama.

If you claim that you are firing or laying off employees because of how they voted in an election, you are violating federal law and should be arrested.

Had Papa John’s raised the price of each pizza by 10-25 cents, most people would not have noticed the difference. It is a very small price to pay to be a decent human being. Instead, Papa’s Johns will never deliver another pie to my house.

Schnatter’s political machinations are playing with people’s lives, people who depend on their paychecks to live. It is inexplicable how many businesses and corporations do not want to pay for health care for their employees. They would rather treat them like chattel, interchanging them when one is sick and can’t work. Take too much time off and there’s plenty more chattel waiting in the wings to make minimum wage until they can’t take it anymore and quit.

Will costs for many items go up so that businesses and corporations can cover the cost of health care for their employees? Most certainly. Is it worth it? Every single penny.

If these businesses and corporations do not want big government covering health care, then maybe big government should stop supporting things such as roads, bridges, and currency. If Papa John’s can’t afford to pay their employees any health care, then maybe they shouldn’t be giving away two million free pizzas in a promotion with Peyton Manning. Ironically, those two million free pizzas will cost Papa John’s more than it would to insure its own employees.

November 22, 2012  
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