Where I Wander

To all you stupid restaurant owners

wilwheaton:

Stop punishing your loyal, hard-working employees to make a vapid political point.

Your message would be much better sent without costing your business if you did the following:

Raise your menu prices 5¢ an item (that will cover the cost of providing insurance for all your employees) and then ADVERTISE THE REASON FOR THE PRICE INCREASE. Tell the customer they are now paying more for their food in order to provide the employee with health insurance.

Better:  

Raise your menu prices 15¢ an item (that will cover the cost of providing insurance, a liveable wage, and paid sick leave for all your employees) and then ADVERTISE WHY YOUR PRICES INCREASED.  Tell the customer you are charging more so your employees will be healthy when they touch the food the customer eats.

Your business will increase because we customers like the thought that we won’t catch a cold, the flu, hepatitis, or some other communicable disease from your sick, stressed employees when we eat at your establishment. It’s a win-win-win situation—you win because of increased business and therefore more money coming in, your employees win because of higher wages, health care, and sick leave, and we customers win because happy employees make tastier food and healthy employees make safer food.

This makes me wish I owned a fast food franchise, because I’d do this in a heartbeat, set an example, be successful, and slowly change things for the better.

America is a huge country, so there has got to be at least one owner somewhere who’ll do this, right?