Are Rising Gas Prices Good For Hiring? Applebees Executive Says Yes

One Applebee's executive director of operations at Apple Central LLC in the Midwest, Wayne Pankratz, has drawn backlash online for saying that rising gas prices are good for the company’s hiring prospects.

The publicizing of the email caused some employees at the restaurant to quit in protest, according to local reports.

The sentiment is that rising gas prices will force people to go back to work and be willing to work for lower wages. An email from Pankratz, who owns a few Applebee's restaurants in the Midwest, was shared on a popular Reddit forum r/antiwork.

“The labor market is about to turn in our favor. What can you do?” He poses in the email.

The email reads “gas prices continue to rise. The advantage this has for us is that it will increase application flow and has the potential to lower our average wage.”

According to payscale.com, Applebee's employees make an average of $11.76 an hour with a $4,000 bonus.

“Most of our employee base and potential employee base live paycheck to paycheck. Any increase in gas price cuts into their disposable income,” Pankratz wrote in the email, adding that employees will need to work more hours “to maintain their current level of living.”

“We are no longer competing with the government when it comes to hiring. Stimulus money is no more, supplemental unemployment is no more. This benefits us as prices rise,” and the people who rely on unemployment payments will have less money to spend, Pankratz pointed out. “It will force people back into the workforce.”

Pankratz also mentioned that “other competitors [mom and pop shops, specifically] will have to either raise prices, cut employee hours, or pay employees less hourly to hit their profit margins. Some businesses will not be able to hold on,” which will drive more employees to seek jobs, according to Pankratz.

In response, Applebees is on the defensive, with chief operations officer Kevin Caroll saying to CBS MoneyWatch that “this is the opinion of an individual, not Applebee's. This issue is being addressed internally by the franchisee who employs this individual and who owns and operates the restaurants in this market.”

Locally, the director of communications for Apple Central LLC Scott Fischer told the Lawrence Journal World that the email is “embarrassing. It really is . . . I have no idea what this gentleman was even talking about. We are still scratching our head about what this gentleman was thinking.”

Fischer added that Apple Central LLC. will conduct an investigation into what the intentions were behind the email and why Pankratz wrote it in the first place.

“We are very fair in understanding that people make mistakes. But I can’t comment until we better understand why he wrote it,” Fischer added.