The day after the election a small business owner in Nevada followed through on his threat and fired 22 employees because Obama won. Even though the 2013 tax code hasn’t been written yet he was sure it will suck, and between that and the looming prospect of Obamacare he started handing out pink slips (being sure to complain about his “Hispanic” workers who voted Obama).
Before the election Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter, a big Romney supporter, was one of the highest profile CEOs threatening layoffs and pizza price hikes (god forbid!) if Obama won. He doubled down after the election, like the Vegas man saying he’d start making layoffs and reducing hours at Papa John’s locations rather than having to provide healthcare for people working more than 30 hours per week.
Forbes ran the numbers on this, and here’s what they found: Last year Papa John’s took in $1.2 billion in revenue. Schattner has said he expects providing healthcare to raise his operating expenses $5-8 million. Based on last year’s operating expenses that’s an increase of 0.4% to 0.7%—a cost that could be met by raising the price of pizza 3.4 to 4.6 cents per pie.
Rather than do that, Schattner plans to cut the hours of workers working more than 30 hours to avoid providing them healthcare.
Oh, and one more thing about the $5-8 million dollar cost of providing healthcare to his employees: In september he announced a promotion to give away 2 million pizzas, an equivalent of $24 million to $32 million. So clearly the company can take a $32 million dollar hit on a promotion without having to penalize workers. But he’d rather keep workers without healthcare than spend a few million (or spend nothing and raise the price of pizza less than a nickel).
What does Schattner get for this? He get his very own Papa John’s Appreciation Day. “We just wanted to stand with Papa John’s because it is under attack,” a supporter tells Fox News. It’s like the sequel to Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day, but this time the company is being appreciated for valuing its employees’ health less than a gimmicky promotion. Papa John’s Appreciation Day even has its own Facebook page.
If you want to thank a giant publicly traded company for slapping its hard-working employees for no reason, head out to Papa John’s on Friday. For everyone else, there’s Pizza Hut.
November 13, 2012 at 8:34 pm, Tansyla Keels Nicholson said:
This is what you get for voting for Obama. More layoffs coming! Tons of companies will do the same. Its simple Obama voters. Wake UP! You take money from the business owners they will lay off people. If they make more money they hire more people. Mark my word. Told You So Obama voters.
November 13, 2012 at 8:42 pm, Megaera la Pict said:
Told us what? That cowtowing to these losers will lose jobs?
Good. And when they get taxed PROPERLY, and business owners learn that they're going to lose business AND money, maybe they'll figure out how to do business when they're not in charge again. And maybe this country will run right again.
The people in power want to punish us for picking someone they don't like? GOOD. Let's take them out of power.
November 13, 2012 at 9:01 pm, 項麗玲 said:
I can't wait for the rise of small town USA and mom/pop shops again; luckily, I live in a place where I have more options than just Walmart and Papa John's, but I understand some places are at the mercy of these corporations. Fuck the mega rich, all those who think that the very people/society that make them rich in the first place don't deserve to be invested in and/or compensated fairly.
November 13, 2012 at 9:03 pm, Megaera la Pict said:
I'm so SICK of these people saying "Oh, we told you so! We're mad so we're gonna punish you!" because guess what! These companies run on OUR money. If anyone with any sense hears about what Papa John's is doing, they're going to stop shopping there – and then old Papa will really know what it's like to lose money.
November 13, 2012 at 9:18 pm, Jeff Logan said:
This is the most asinine post I have seen in awhile – and that's saying something!
November 13, 2012 at 9:20 pm, Megaera la Pict said:
Especially since the business owners she's talking about have been MAKING MORE MONEY due to the Bush tax cuts for millionaires. Did we get more jobs from that? I must have missed them – and so did the whole country!
November 13, 2012 at 9:55 pm, Lyndsey O'Day said:
You clearly did not read the article.
November 15, 2012 at 6:30 pm, Vic Lavar said:
It's a choice Tanyla. Papa Johns chooses to reduce hours for employees and even fire them. They could have chosen not to give away millions of their pizzas for free and taken care of their hardworking low wage low benefit employees instead. They are going to lose big on this with a lot of consumers. It's already going through the social networks. To make matters worse… they are getting sued big time for spamming. Karma is a biotch.
November 14, 2012 at 12:07 am, John Gordon said:
Papa johns is an extremely profitable business. Yet their owner who isn't just saying that he doesn't care for Obama he's also saying that he values his own wealth more than the health and livelihood of his employees. This isn't about healthcare, it's about racism and greed
November 14, 2012 at 12:39 am, Eric Mehrten said:
It's not racist. It's ignorant. Not all papa johns employees are of the same race. He isn't singling out a race, he's treating everyone the exact same. Like they are worthless
November 14, 2012 at 12:44 am, Tom Morgan said:
Classism maybe, but racism really?
November 14, 2012 at 1:37 am, Clarence White Jr said:
What do you expect from someone who is peddling an inferior product to the american people. His pizza tastes like hot garbage so it would stand to reason that hot garbage would come out if his mouth
November 14, 2012 at 1:29 am, Gary Joyner said:
Congratulations, you lost a customer Papa John more like Greedy Gus.I have a billion I won't leave any scraps for your healthcare.
November 14, 2012 at 3:59 am, Ernest Garrison said:
Fuck papa john and the pizza he rode in on. Im tired of them greedy rich bitches acting like little girls.
November 14, 2012 at 7:16 am, Kathy Shaw said:
What a…poopy head to quote another douchebag.
November 14, 2012 at 7:28 am, Elaine Shugarts Chinnis said:
Never liked their pizza anyway!
November 14, 2012 at 5:19 pm, Kelsey Burnette said:
Woo! No more fighting with my husband on who to order pizza from. Pizza Hut's stuffed crust is the only way to go
and now he agrees! Thanks for being an ignorant biggot, Schattner 
November 14, 2012 at 5:35 pm, Abby Moskowitz said:
Really, those are your options? You don't have any real pizza places around you?
November 15, 2012 at 2:43 pm, Kelsey Burnette said:
We do but "real" pizza places have "real" thin crust. I hate that
I actually like Pizza Hut more than fancy, up-scale pizza… even more than NY and Chicago and NJ's pizza that everyone boasts about! Sowwy 
November 15, 2012 at 4:57 pm, Abby Moskowitz said:
Lol no worries, no reason to apologize for your own taste
even if it's super weird 
November 15, 2012 at 8:19 pm, 項麗玲 said:
Unfortunately, Pizza Hut and Domino's also have the same practices of cutting employee hours (to avoid paying any benefits) as well…. And so does Olive Garden, McDonald's, Longhorn Steakhouse, Burger King, Red Lobster, and Applebee's. Still personally not worried though, as I stopped patronizing these chains/places a good many years ago anyway. I have a lot of local pizza options, and even chains like Papa Murphy's (there's one right next to me actually; they make it, and you pick up and bake the pizza at home). Their pizza alone (Papa Murphy's) is much fresher (of course), they have more options (to my liking), they're actually more affordable, and their pizzas are no where near as heavy/greasy (imho) as the other chains. They also do cute little things like jack-o-lantern face pizzas for Halloween. =) That they came out and publicly supported treating employees with fairness and dignity does not hurt either.
November 15, 2012 at 8:24 pm, 項麗玲 said:
And also stuff crust (apparently). =)
November 15, 2012 at 8:30 pm, 項麗玲 said:
stuffed*
November 15, 2012 at 8:34 pm, Kelsey Burnette said:
Whoa! If they have stuffed crust, I'm sold. I hear ads for Papa Murphy's all the time! There's one right by me
I haven't tried them before but, in light of recent events, I think I will!
November 15, 2012 at 8:45 pm, 項麗玲 said:
So good; the one next to me makes these "Thai" pizzas (one of my favorites whenever I get pizza; it is a thin-crust one though)…. Omnomnom
November 16, 2012 at 10:03 pm, Kelsey Burnette said:
Hey, if it's yummy enough then thin crust doesn't matter. Thanks for the suggestion! I'm ordering Papa Murphy's this weekend
November 14, 2012 at 2:01 pm, Target’s ‘Save Thanksgiving’ petitions: the case for unionizing | Death and Taxes said:
[...] Creep.’”Holidays and elections tend to make stories like this headline-worthy. Papa John’s is getting its share of heat right now for insisting it’ll cut employees’ hours rather [...]
November 15, 2012 at 3:28 am, Michelle N Moore said:
You're pathetic, PJ. You are a nasty-ass pizza chain and I hope you go out of business. The only ones who will mourn your passing will be the morbidly obese and high schoolers with bacne.
November 15, 2012 at 5:45 am, Morwyn Margaret Peeler said:
Lips that touch Papa John's Pizza shall never touch mine. What you want to bet this greedy jerk takes into account which employees have Obama stickers on their cars when he's cutting their hours? If he has asked managers to punish employees who supported Obama, I hope someone tattles on him. I pity his employees, they're working for Scrooge McDuck.
November 15, 2012 at 5:52 am, Michelle Mauler said:
It's called neofeudalism.
November 15, 2012 at 5:58 am, Morwyn Margaret Peeler said:
:::claps::: New vocabulary word! I will make good use of it.
November 15, 2012 at 1:56 pm, Adrian Wilkins said:
It's simple ; he'd rather have employees that don't have healthcare, not because of the small cost of the healthcare, but the much higher cost of employees that aren't terrified of losing their job.
If you're not terrified of losing your job, you might ask for a raise, which would be a lot more expensive in the long run. Employers like this do not want universal healthcare because they like it when people get wiped out by their medical bills, and have to take absolutely any job (at any crappy wage) to make ends meet.
November 15, 2012 at 9:17 am, Links 15/11/2012: | Techrights said:
[...] Idiots line up to thank Papa John’s for screwing them out of healthcare [...]
November 15, 2012 at 9:18 am, Links 15/11/2012: Enlightenment E17 Alpha 2, m0n0wall 1.34 | Techrights said:
[...] Idiots line up to thank Papa John’s for screwing them out of healthcare [...]
November 15, 2012 at 2:26 pm, Rita Kingsburgh said:
Buckle up, more to come soon, businesses are going to fall down like dominoes. Good luck in finding jobs after if you graduate. There won't be full time jobs anymore, but mostly part time jobs.; Welcome to the new world order. Shame to see businesses going down the drain.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html
November 16, 2012 at 6:00 am, Craig Brooks said:
Papa John's, you can keep your shit pizza. You'd rather run your dumbass pizza promotion than keep your employees and give them health coverage.
November 16, 2012 at 8:56 pm, Buddy Blouin said:
What the hell is Papa Johns?
November 16, 2012 at 9:11 am, Rita Kingsburgh said:
btw, obama cuts ohio's foodstamps after ohio votes him in.
http://americanvisionnews.com/4888/obama-cuts-ohios-food-stamps-after-ohio-votes-him-in
December 29, 2012 at 5:50 pm, Derek Wilson said:
Hmmm. Why should I pay for your health care? Also, health care benefits are just that benefits, not GD right just because you managed to crawl out of bed and show up at a job for teenagers. You liberals are pathetic. Everything is a right to you. And if you don't feel like working, ol' Uncle Sam will pay for your ass to stay at home and smoke pot.
December 29, 2012 at 6:23 pm, Lita Trimble said:
Will you pay my health care? Just asking.
December 29, 2012 at 5:54 pm, Derek Wilson said:
Also.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/11/21/papa-johns-schnatter-says-he-will-honor-obamacare-and-give-health-insurance-to-all-employees/
December 29, 2012 at 9:49 pm, Steve Newman said:
I'm paying almost $500 a month for my pwn family's insurance. Why should I pay gor yours?