Restaurateurs might have wondered if they’d hit some sort of time warp while tuning into President Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday night. That Twilight Zone twist would have explained why the provisions with particular relevance to the business sounded so familiar.
Indeed, the presentation touched for the umpteenth time on the presidential priorities that would most affect the restaurant trade, albeit with one major exception.
He repeated his conviction that government should do all it can to encourage union organizing. To no one’s surprise, the president also called for raising the federal minimum wage from the paltry level of $7.25, where the pay floor has been stuck for 15 years.
His promise to eliminate so-called junk fees—the surprise surcharges that can significantly jack up the price of a good or service—could have been cut-and-pasted from last year’s State of the Union.
But, significantly, Biden did not add restaurants to his list of culprits, such as cable companies and banks. His administration has not shown that reserve; the Federal Trade Commission has tacked the restaurant business onto its roster of trades whose use of add-on charges like service fees needs to be curbed, if not outlawed altogether. New rules governing the practice are due from the regulatory agency later this year.
In another flashback, the president once again blasted billionaires and big corporations for minimizing or eliminating their tax obligations by gaming IRS rules.
“Thanks to the law I wrote and we signed, big companies now have to pay a minimum of 15%,” Biden said. “But that’s still less than working people pay in federal taxes.It’s time to raise the corporate minimum tax to at least 21% so every big corporation finally begins to pay their fair share.”
Tightening the loopholes used by billionaires would generate an additional $500 billion in federal tax revenues and potential pay for costly workplace benefits like childcare and paid leave, Biden asserted.
Immigration was an area where Biden veered away from his usual messaging. The president chided his Republican adversaries—and Donald Trump in particular, referring to him as “my predecessor”—for scuttling a bill that would have sped up the process for determining whether a migrant should be granted asylum in the U.S. Instead of waiting six or eight years, according to Biden, the applicant would know within six weeks if he or she can remain.
The hundreds of thousands who’ve been entering the U.S. in hopes of winning asylum are seen by many politicians and industry leaders as a significant source of new potential hires for restaurant jobs. But, even if asylum is granted, the individual may not be cleared to work for years.
Biden called on lawmakers from both sides of the Congressional aisle to take up the bill that stalled a few weeks ago.
“Get this bill done,” he nearly shouted. “We need to act now.”