Earlier this week, during an interview on Fox Business, Neil Cavuto and I discussed efforts by the White House to force businesses to pay overtime to management level employees. Neil started off the segment by making it clear that the next two years are going to be difficult ones for businesses under this Administration. I concur. The real problem with this President is his lack of understanding of how business works. Efforts to turn managers into hourly employees is a great example of how this Administration fails to appreciate the most basic elements of running a business.
At our restaurants, we compensate our restaurant managers with a salary and a performance bonus whereas President Obama wants to turn managers into hourly employees that get overtime. This means that managers will be compensated for time spent as opposed to time well-spent. Unfortunately, the President’s move would hurt the very managers he intends to help by turning them into hourly employees, depriving them of the benefits that come from moving into management including an incentive bonus based on their personal performance. In March, I wrote about this issue in a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled Obama’s Overtime-Pay Boomerang.
This Administration’s policies are hurting employees and businesses. We need to elect a president who understands the private sector. Personally, I think Mitt Romney is the man for the job. I hope he runs.
