Applebee's looks into abusing US gas crisis to abuse employees
4 Min Read
Applebee's looks into lowering wages for their employees due to application flow in light of rising gas prices.
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An Applebee's waitress taking customers' order
Corporate America is looking once again into abusing a crisis to propel its interests and make more money, or in this case, save money.
As prices are rising to a stifling rate for the average US working class citizen, Applebee's, a vast restaurant chain with branches spread throughout nearly all states in the United States and many countries around the globe, is looking into exploiting its employees by lowering their wages, citing the "influx of applicants."
With many Americans juggling several jobs simultaneously to keep up with the harsh economic conditions in the United States amid an unprecedented inflation crisis, and many others not back in the workforce due to the lack of job opportunities following the pandemic and low wages due to the aforementioned inflation crisis, corporations want to turn up a profit as well.
Applebee's, in a corporate email, acknowledged that most of their employee base and potential employees "live paycheck to paycheck"; however, it still looked to abuse them via lower wages that would potentially render their lives unliveable as even transport has become unprecedentedly expensive.
"Any increase in gas price cuts into their disposable income," the email acknowledged, "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."
Applebee's saw that their employees will need to work extra hours to afford a liveable wage, and seeing that there was no longer any competition with the government in terms of hiring and it was no longer giving out stimulus money, with no supplemental unemployment, corporate said, "This benefits us as prices rise, people who we[re] relying on unemployment money, simply will have less money to spend. It will force people back into the labor force."
The mega-corporation saw that its competitors, "especially mom and pop companies or smaller businesses," will have to either raise prices, cut employee hours, or pay employees less hourly to hit their profit margins, and a major restaurant chain with billions of dollars to its name did not want to dig into its own pockets to help their employees overcome this rough period.
They also saw other "competitors" going out of business as a driver for lower wages. "This is going to drive more potential employees into the hiring pool."
Additionally, transport of goods via trucking companies was also going to take a toll on the prices. "If these costs cannot be passed on to the customer in terms of menu prices, the only area they can cut sizeable costs will be in labor."
They sympathetically saw that a pay cut for their employees would drive them to seek a second job, and that would require employers to "get schedules completed early so they can plan their other jobs around yours."
LEAKED EMAIL: Applebee’s franchise exec says that rising gas prices are great for business because the chain can offer workers lower wages.
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) March 25, 2022
“Most of our employee base and potential employee base live paycheck to paycheck… the labor market is about to turn in our favor.” pic.twitter.com/MV2q5DVSpG
The gas crisis has been brought upon US citizens by the US and its allies rolling out comprehensive sanctions, including restrictions on the Russian central bank, export control measures, SWIFT cutoff for select banks, and closure of airspace to all Russian flights over Russia's special military operation in Ukraine. Many of their companies have suspended their Russian operations.
The status-quo and the US sanctions on Russia have weakened US citizens' purchasing power, causing fuel prices to soar in the country with US oil prices reaching their all-time high following a ban on Russian fuel exports.
