Leaked Email: Restaurant Chain Exec’s Plan to Hire Workers for Less Because Inflation, Gas Prices Will Make Them Desperate
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An executive who manages a chain of Applebees restaurants celebrated how high gas prices and inflation might burden lower wage workers in a recent leaked email.
In an internal email from a company called Apple Central LLC, executive director of operations Wayne Pankratz explained Applebee’s locations could capitalize on high prices by paying workers less.
Wayne Pankratz of @Applebees says that higher gas prices are great for business because most employees live check to check and hopefully they can start lowering wages. pic.twitter.com/BiRfeSmsYX
— Rob Gill 🇨🇦❤️🇺🇦 (@vote4robgill) March 23, 2022
Pankratz wrote,
Most of our employee base and potential employee base live paycheck to paycheck. Any increase in gas price cuts into their disposable income. As inflation continues to climb and gas prices continue to go up, that means more hours employees will need to work to maintain their current level of living. We are no longer competing with the government when it comes to hiring.
The executive added that stimulus money is “no more,” while supplemental unemployment benefits have also dried up.
“This benefits us as prices rise, people who we relying on unemployment money, simply will have less money to spend,” he continued. “It will force people back into the work force.”
Pankratz concluded that with prices rising, the company no longer has to compete with “mom and pop companies or smaller businesses.”
Such companies “will have to either raise prices, cut employee hours, or pay employees less hourly to hit their profit margins,” he argued. “Some businesses will not be able to hold on. This is going to drive more potential employees into the hiring pool.”
He concluded,
Besides hiring employees in at a lower wage to decrease our labor (when able) make sure you have pulse on the morale of your employees. Your employees that live check to check are impacted more than the people reading this email. Be conscious of that. Many will need to work more hours or get a second job. Do things to make sure you are the employer of choice.
The Lawrence Journal-World reported employees at the Lawrence, Kansas, location saw the email earlier this week. Two managers quit on the spot, and the restaurant closed briefly.
Scott Fischer, a spokesman for Apple Central LLC, told the Journal-World the email is “embarrassing” for the company.
“I know this probably sounds crazy, but I have no idea what this gentleman was even talking about,” said Fischer. “We are still scratching our head about what this gentleman was thinking.”
A LinkedIn page which presumably belonged to Pankratz has been deleted.
Fischer said Pankratz is still employed by the company, which operates 47 Applebee’s restaurants in the midwest.
