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A Growing Trend: More Restaurants Cutting Employees' Hours in Preparation for 'Obamacare

A Growing Trend: More Restaurants Cutting Employees' Hours in Preparation for 'Obamacare

As we drawer closer to the full implementation of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (i.e.”Obamacare”), a growing list of restaurants and eateries have decided as a cost-cutting measure to cut back their employees' hours.

A Taco Bell in Guthrie, Okla., for example, has cut “its full-time employees' hours to avoid mandates under the new health care law,” News9.com reports.

“We talked to the company that owns the Guthrie restaurant today, and it confirmed the cuts. Now, employees there aren't allowed to work more than 28 hours a week,” the report adds.

News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports |

Under threat of fine, “Obamacare” requires that all employers provide insurance to full-time employees. Therefore, a few eateries has opted to demote their staff to ​not ​full-time.

"They informed everybody that nobody was considered full-time any longer, that everybody was now considered part-time, and [they] would be cutting hours back to 28 hours or less due to Obamacare," said former employee Johnna Davis.

"Several of the other people I work with, some of them are single parents, and we do the best we can, and 28 hours a week just isn't going to cut it for the bills," she said.

Next up, Wendy’s.

“A Nebraska Wendy's franchise is the next to try what has become a telling trend: Cutting employee hours to avoid paying for health care under the Affordable Care Act's requirements,” Times 24/7 reports, citing a recent WOWT article.

“About 100 workers at 11 Omaha-area restaurants have already seen their hours cut to 28 per week,” the report adds.

Remember when we said that a "growing list of restaurants" have chosen to cut employees' hours? Yeah, we weren’t making that up.

“The trend started months ago: In November, Papa John's CEO John Schnatter said that he would also dodge the requirement by making more workers part time,” Times 24/7 notes.

“Darden Restaurants, owner of the Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains, announced a similar plan in October, but negative backlash forced the company to abandon the idea. Darden blamed the ordeal for a dramatic 37 percent drop in fourth-quarter profits,” the report adds.

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

Featured image courtesy shutterstock.com

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