Get u're cheap Five Guys while you can

[nimdabew]

http://www.inquisitr.com/567416/five...OZlHrx4mryz.99

A Five Guys franchise owner says he may have to pass along price increases on burgers, fries, and hotdogs to his customers when Obamacare fully kicks in because insurance premiums will be the equivalent of “supersized.”

Mike Ruffer, who owns eight Five Guys restaurants and employees 150 people, describes himself as being in the bullseye of the so-called Affordable Care Act. He also believes that it will be until July at the earliest when insurance companies will be able to tell their business clients how much healthcare premiums will cost going forward. The government is in the process of cranking out pages and pages of complicated Obamacare-related regulations that will be challenging for most employers and individuals to plan for and process, let alone implement.

In various surveys, Five Guys has become America’s favorite burger chain, but things are going to get rougher for Ruffer under Obamacare.

Ruffer said today that “any added costs are going to have to be passed on” to the consumer. Ruff estimates that it will take the entire profit of one of his restaurants to pay for Obamacare. He is also holding off on opening three new Five Guys outlets until the Obamacare regulations are fully fleshed out. Under the law’s mandates, since covered employers (i.e, those with 50 or more persons on the payroll) must either provide health insurance to eligible employees or pay the government a $3,000 fine for each one, he may be forced to transition many of his full-time hardworking burger cooks to part time status if the premiums become too onerous and unaffordable. He surmised that additional healthcare insurance costs under Obamacare could total $60,000 annually for his business.

Because of this regulatory dilemma, the law is providing a disincentive for maximizing his “trained, experienced, and dependable” workers if he has to trim their hours to part time, Ruff asserted.

[brickboy240]

Doesn't this pretty much apply to every retail business....pretty soon?

I think it does.

Surprise! Free healthcare....well...it is not going to be free!

LOL

-brickboy240

[SMETNA]

This crap doesn't fully kick- in until after the great leaders' term is up, by design. So that the next administration and congress will oversee a huge financial disaster

[Belmont31R]

$60,000 spread out over 150 employees is only $400 per employee per year, and he has to switch them to part time over that and delay opening 3 new stores?


Either its a fluffed up story or the guy is doing something wrong. Not that I agree with Obamacare at all but just doesn't add up to me.

[ralph]

This is just the start....Many small business's will also be impacted by Obamacare if it is allowed to be fully implemented..I hate to say it, but for many people, their future is going to be nothing but a string of part time jobs, with little or no hope of advancement, or a chance of saving for things like a house, retirement, etc... Their future is going to be that of just getting by.

[SHIVAN]

I read that as an additional $60,000, over and above what he pays for them now.

So he has a winning formula of expenses to revenue, that nets a profit at each location, every year. Now he gets hit with 60,000 in uncontrollable expenses, and he must eat the profit of one location to cover these new costs.

[ralph]

This crap doesn't fully kick- in until after the great leaders' term is up, by design. So that the next administration and congress will oversee a huge financial disaster

And, of course, it'll be Bush's or the Republican's fault...

[TXBob]

Man you had me all excited that there was some discount going on---that's harsh man!

I claim FALSE ADVERTISING by nimdabew !

[chadbag]

Maybe each individual restaurant needs to be made a separate legal entity, and he would just be a holding company.

That might get his employee total for each individual business down to less than 50?

Don't know if this "loop hole" is possible. But it makes sense.

Chad

[nimdabew]

I read that as an additional $60,000, over and above what he pays for them now.

So he has a winning formula of expenses to revenue, that nets a profit at each location, every year. Now he gets hit with 60,000 in uncontrollable expenses, and he must eat the profit of one location to cover these new costs.

This is how I read it as well.

He also has to think about possible increases in energy for perishable foods which will continue to eat into his profits and starting a store from nothing costs a pretty penny. I don't know if the figure is accurate anymore, but the past time a company I worked for opened a store from the foundation up, it was close to 7 million. Mortgage on building, all normal expenses, and an additional $400 on each employee. It all cuts into the bottom line if you don't pass it off to the customer.