A Restaurant Brainstorms How To Afford Obamacare
Almost 20 percent of American workers are working part-time, a historic high. Those part-time workers will be able to get health coverage beginning next year under Obama's Affordable Care Act, but many business owners worry about how they'll pay for it.
Business owners like Clyde's Restaurant Group, a family-owned chain of 14 restaurants in the Washington, D.C., area. For half a century, Clyde's has been a meeting place for politicians and lobbyists — like those who passed the Affordable Care Act — to meet over drinks away from Capitol Hill.
Restaurants face particular challenges adapting to the new health care laws. Supplemented by tips, most restaurant employees work for low wages. That means restaurant owners must pay a relatively larger portion of premiums than other businesses to make health care affordable.
It's not as simple as just cutting employee pay or raising prices to bring in the extra money needed, Clyde's Chief Financial Officer Jeff Owens says. Clyde's has had to rethink its business plan.
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