One Wendy’s franchise from Omaha is joining the ranks of many restaurant franchises around the country- cutting down their number of full-time employees in in order to avoid providing them with healthcare under the Affordable Care Act- Obamacare.

Restaurant chain owners of Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and others have already announced that they will be making similar moves in order to avoid Obamacare.

By moving their employees from full-time to part-time positions, the employees become eligible of receiving their healthcare from the government instead.

The vice president of operations for the local Wendy’s franchise, Gary Burdette, says:

“The company has announced that all non-management positions will have their hours reduced to 28 a week. The cuts are coming because the new Affordable Health Care Act requires employers to offer health insurance to employees working 32-38 hours a week. Under the current law they are not considered full time and that as a small business owner, he can’t afford to stay in operation and pay for everyone’s health insurance.”

Denny’ saw some of their franchises make like choices, but decided to distance themselves from such policy decisions. Darden Restaurants also threatened to cut workers to part-time and ended up seeing a 37% drop in profits.

John Schnatter, the owner of Papa John’s pizza, was publicly criticized for announcing that he would need to raise the price of his pizzas in order to compensate for the increase in his overhead- a price increase of pennies on each pie.

The American Urban Institute has recently published a study showing that Obamacare has a very small impact on large corporations and that small businesses are very likely to see a benefit from the plan.

Paul Hudson | Elite.