Restaurants are the largest employer in the US...total insanity

As you no doubt know, the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a very onerous and punitive health care reform bill, H.R. 3962, very soon. Sources have it that the vote can take place as early as Saturday night, but could be pushed to early next week. We want you to contact your House Representative by email on Friday the 6th of November.

We recognize the need for improvement with the health care system, and hope that the final bill truly is beneficial for both our employees and for you. This is why we have been working so closely with congress and our trade associations for months. We were able to make progress with the Senate and continue to work closely with them. But what has come out of the House is not what we were hoping for; as we do not believe that congress should put the cost burden of reform on employers. The House version of health care reform has the most onerous language out there. It will require you to pay at least $3,292 per part-time employee, $3,408 per full time and $8,255 per full time married or with family. If you do not pay this you will be required to pay a flat 8% of payroll to subsidize the government assistance they would be receiving.

The House bill does not exclude part-time employees, or allow a 90 day waiting period to see if the employee will stay with the company. These are two items that we are strongly pushing for and are making headway with the Senate version. While we do not feel that your restaurants should be required to pay for health coverage, the House version is mandating to high a price.

With the National Council of Chain Restaurants we've created new messaging that is specific to H.R. 3962, but that also makes clear our opposition to ANY variation that includes employer mandates and penalties.

Here's the link to the action alert which provides talking points and a pre-written message for you to send directly to your Representative in Congress. It will not take any more than 3-5 minutes. If you have done this before, it will take less time. I encourage you to forward this link to your managers and operators so that they may contact their Representative as well. The message is completely customizable, and it's always more effective if you tailor it to your personal circumstances. Everyone was sent the excel spread sheet that demonstrated the effect it would have on your business it has been included once again for your convenience. We have found that some of you will see this bill costing up to $260,000 per year, per restaurant. Any specific references to numbers of jobs that could be adversely impacted would be helpful.