Posted on 04/11/2020 7:31:05 PM PDT by Meatspace
Houston billionaire restaurateur Tilman Fertitta told FOX News' guest host Brian Kilmeade that he laid off 45,000 workers as a 'favor" to help them access unemployment benefits earlier.
"You know, Brian, I went through the '87 crisis, the 2000, the 2008," Fertitta said Saturday on FOX News' Ingraham Angle. "You’re doing the people a favor if you get them furloughed first, because you have them first to unemployment line after the severance that you give them. It’s a trick that I’ve learned many years ago."
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Tell your boss to fire you.
You get 16 weeks at $600 + your state unemployment for 38 weeks? That’s a ton of cash. Don’t forget your $1200 too.
Trump says may extend it too.
You could be in my shoes. Tx says they will abide by the CARES Act and allow the self employed to collect, however TX website is worthless and crashes and calling is impossible. ...last week I got my first unemployment payment. ....it was for Zero Dollars and Zero Cents. ...wonder what my bank thinks about that lunacy.
Filed today with the new IRS web portal for my $1200, well the IRS doesn’t recognize my banks ABA routing number. They say to mail my info to them. Yeah, mail it to a place that is shut down. Brilliant
Many .. Landry’s, Babbins, Joe’s Crab Shack, Bubba Gump, Willie G’s, Rainforest Cafe, just to name a few.
My wife worked accounts receivable for a large landscape contractor that maintained his properties. Always had trouble collecting from him, and they were very BIG contracts.
Well, he does come from a mafia family.
He is socializing his business losses.
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A fairly common leftist complaint.
Saltgrass? Does he own Saltgrass? Please tell me no...
I interrupted this differently, meaning all these people are being targeted for layoffs.
I see a ton of “moral hazards”, a euphemism for rewarding and incentivizing irresponsible behavior, as a result of the way we’re dealing with this exaggerated plague.
And the Rats will do everything in their power to keep it going.
Yeah really, ESPECIALLY the IT workers. They want their high salaries protected by the government from an era when computer programmers were scarce, but reality on ground has changed and businesses can not stay in business with over-supply of cheap computer programmers world wide.
“And the Rats will do everything in their power to keep it going.”
They, both Democrats and Republicans had no problem spending trillions of dollars for the stimulus resulting from COVID-19. Undoubtedly, Mr. Fertitta took his cut if that money and now passes responsibility for his employees to the taxpayers.
Time deaf
Exactly. The government has nothing to give that they didn’t take from you first! Fertitta has paid a bundle in unemployment taxes. And guess what! It’s experience based, so whenever former employees claim against the fund, his rates go up and he pays even more.
hahahaha Yep. that one too! and he appreciates your business. Once this is over, you should take the money you didn’t spend at his restaurants and enjoy a weekend in las vegas at the Golden Nugget. Ooops Guess what? Yep, owns that too. oh well, basketball will be back soon, just catch a Rockets game. ummmm, yep owns that one too!
He bought out Saltgrass a few years ago, I think. There are other places just as good.
He is a Businessman making an educated decision that in the long run will benefit his furloughed Employees.
The System is the System and he obviously knows what needed to be done.
He didn’t Vote on that $2.2 TRILLION DOLLAR Boondoggle that will make the fraud and abuse from the Katrina Bailout look like a day at Disneyland.
Has FR joined the Big Business bad mantra?
Of course businesses pay unemployment taxes. But every state unemployment fund in the country is backed up by the taxpayers of that state, and ultimately by the nations taxpayers. Look up what governments, including the federal government did the last time there was significant unemployment.
Fertitta is a very rich guy. He is reported to have a net worth of about 4.8 billion dollars. The employees he has laid off at Landry's are mostly restaurant staff. The corporate employees are working for reduced salaries.
We can estimate the payroll burden of the 45,000 employees, based on public reports by employees. Servers, for example, make about $27,000 per year. Some of the 45,000 make more, like the restaurant managers, some like the dishwashers make less. So let's be generous and say that the average is $30,000 per year, and the add 12% for direct payroll related expenses like FICA and medicare taxes. That gets us to $33,600 per year, or $2,800 per month.
The monthly burden of the 45,000 employees is 126 million dollars. So keeping the entire staff on board for a month would have cost Fertitta 2.6% of his total net worth. What he did looks like it will cost the federal taxpayers alone 27 million dollars per month.
To put that in perspective, for a typical wealthy American with 1 Million dollars in net worth the equivalent amount is $26,250
I am sure many small business owners will put $25,000 or more of their own money into keeping their employees afloat during April instead of laying them off and leaving the taxpayers to cover their income.
By contrast, Fertitta, who could spend 2.6% of his net worth won't do it. Instead, he pushes his employees out the door and lets the taxpayers foot the bill.
Maybe you are the kind of person that even if you had a million dollars you wouldn't part with $26,000 to help your employees get through this unprecedented problem we have right now. Most business owners aren't like that.
But Fertitta looks like a cheap guy. He owns some pretty good restaurants, but he appears to have no regard for the taxpayers that eat in his restaurants and made him rich.
Before you comment that other posters "have no idea what they are talking about" you might want to know something about what you are commenting about yourself.
In Texas, where Landry's operates primarily, the UI insurance payment is at a rate set by the state which has a maximum of 2.7% on the first $9,000 of payroll for an employee. Landry's is paying a much lower rate, as an established employer.
Even at the introductory rate, for a person earning $30,000 a year at Landry's the UI tax is $243. Even if that person's contribution continued for 10 years, the resulting balance is only $2430.
As to the 1.5% rate you suggest, the actual effective rate in Texas assuming the maximum Texas UI contribution rate for a typical Landry's waitress is around .8% of his or her salary.
He actually is that rich. There is a big difference between a billionaire, like Fertitta, and a millionaire.
27 million dollars per week represents .5% of his net worth.
To put that in a simple perspective, if you have a net worth of $10,000, it is like spending $56.25 per week.
Fun with numbers, figures lie and liars figure.
Please explain how someone who is WORTH a $1,000,000 has ready access to $26,000 every month?
What property can one sell this quickly in today's market? Oh and let us not forget that the Net Worth would dramatically decline if we were to Mark To Market
It ought to be a complaint from every taxpayer regardless of their political inclination. It should definitely be a complaint from every real conservative.
Crony capitalism where people use the taxpayers to pay off their losses but keep the profits for themselves deserves condemnation from everyone.
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