Jobs to lose out in battle of Capitol HillJobs to lose out in battle of Capitol Hill

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors and management of Nation’s Restaurant News.


The recent government shutdown that thrust the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act back into the national spotlight may end up hurting restaurant owners by stifling any compromise legislation that might have brought relief from the onerous health care mandate. The more Republicans and Democrats dig in their heels over their differences, the fewer the chances of success for any proposals to reduce the negative impact of the ACA.

In recent months, a glimmer of hope for a more workable health care law emerged with the introduction of bipartisan legislation seeking to adjust Obamacare’s definition of a “full-time worker” from one who works at least 30 hours per week to one who works at least 40 hours per week. Under current law, businesses with more than 50 full-time workers must provide health insurance for full-time employees who work either 30 hours or more per week or 130 hours or more per month.

In June, legislation to change that definition was introduced in both the House and Senate in the form of the Save American Workers Act by Rep. Todd Young, R-Ind., and the Forty Hours is Full Time Act by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., respectively. And in August, Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., introduced an alternative, though similar, version in the House.

While many Americans — and those who represent their interests in the House and Senate — would rather see Obamacare go away entirely, at least as many members of Congress support the law’s goals while admitting it needs to be polished through legislative action. However, it now seems unlikely that our gridlocked Washington politicians will be willing to fine-tune the ACA so that it better achieves its purposes with the least amount of unintended consequences.

Restaurateurs and other service industry business owners most acutely impacted by the ACA have generally been against the law since it was first introduced in Congress in 2009. Aside from using a measure that would make the French jealous, the 30-hour-a-week threshold cuts at the heart of the part-time, entry-level jobs that provide the first rung of the ladder for America’s youth, the economically disadvantaged and recent immigrants. Heaping the financial costs of Obamacare onto entry-level jobs will only serve to price many of those workers out of the labor market.

But at this point — three years after the ACA became the law of the land and more than a year after the Supreme Court upheld the vast majority of its provisions — the pragmatism of employers who must implement the law has come into play. Sadly, the slim hopes that had remained for changes to minimize its impact are quickly dying on the Capitol Hill vine.

From government funding and debt ceiling battles heightened by Republicans to the new efforts by Democrats to mandate significant wage hikes and paid leave across the country, neither party is showing any willingness to create an environment conducive to service sector job growth. As every operator, franchisee and brand executive knows, platitudes and floor speeches do not help with tax planning or making payroll.

Public data on political donations illustrate the long-held fact that the Republican party generally tends to show greater sympathy toward the issues most important to restaurants, and, not surprisingly, members of the GOP receive a greater share of restaurant industry donations than Democrats. But the last three years — more precisely, the last three months — have put that nearly automatic reflex into question. Ideology is increasingly taking precedence over the economy, and the employers of this country are on the losing end of this new equation. As The Washington Post noted in an Oct. 2 column titled “Shutdown highlights business’s waning influence on Republicans,” “Today, as the House prepares yet another iteration of the continuing resolution that the Senate will almost surely reject, the shift of power from business interests to conservative activists is complete.” 

The apparent loss of sway by business with the Republican party is not being counterbalanced by an increase in Democratic sympathies for service sector concerns. The moderate middle in American politics is disappearing. The ongoing battles in Washington are the clearest signal yet that service industry employers must move ahead with a vigorous defense of the jobs created in recent years and the opportunities provided throughout American history.

The champions of our cause are no longer those rare members of Congress who actually get what it means to make payroll while operating on extremely thin margins. Those folks are too busy refighting the battles of the first five years of Barack Obama’s presidency. The owners, operators and executives of the restaurant sector must continue, through the chaos, to create more jobs for the economy. And we must make sure the public, the media and the elected officials know about our success stories. 

As the last few months have shown, the obstinance of Democrats unwilling to reopen debate about Obamacare and the steadfastness of Tea Party Republicans to focus on nothing beyond the health care law have combined to trump a meaningful discussion about job growth in this economy. This sad state of affairs is likely to continue as the calendar turns to 2014, when the country will be subjected to a midterm election with a lame duck president and the likelihood of — if it’s possible — a political environment even more rancorous than the Tea Party wave election of 2010.

Joe Kefauver is managing partner of Parquet Public Affairs, a national issue management, communications, government relations and reputation assurance firm that specializes in service sector industries. For more information go to www.parquetpa.com.