QSR Executive Says Obamacare Hurts Job Creation

Andy Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, told Fox News that he would be hiring part-time workers because of the new law.

October 18, 2013

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Another business owner has accused the Affordable Patient Care Act as a job-killer, Fox News reports. Andy Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants Inc., which owns Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., told Megyn Kelly on “The Kelly File” that he would not be hiring full-time employees because of the higher costs of health care.

Puzder went on to say President Obama was “wrong” when the president asserted that Obamacare would not harm the creation of U.S. jobs. “It’s very simple if you increase the cost of something businesses will use less of it,” he said. “If you decrease the cost they will use more of it. So if you increase the cost of full time employment, there will be less full time employees. If you decrease the cost of part time employment, you’ll have more part time employment.”

The CEO also pointed out that during the six months this year that the administration pushed back the employer mandate—which required businesses with more than 50 full-time workers to make available health care coverage to all of those workers—companies had started dropping employee hours to part-time.

In May, a Gallup poll found that half of all small businesses were concerned about the new healthcare law. Meanwhile, NACS is urging c-stores to comply with the requirement to provide notice to their employees of the availability of coverage options.

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