Missouri Applebee’s franchise executive fired after backlash to email on lowering wages
An executive for a Missouri-based restaurant franchise group was fired Monday following a recent email suggesting that employees’ financial desperation was working in the company’s favor.
The email sent by Wayne Pankratz caused outrage on social media last week. It suggested that inflation and increasing gas prices offered “the potential to lower our average wage” by straining the budgets of restaurant employees.
The franchise company Apple Central Group that employed Pankratz as a mid-level executive operates Applebee’s and Taco Bell restaurants in nine states including Missouri and Kansas.
Pankratz’s email went on to suggest “hiring employees in at a lower wage to decrease our labor (costs),” and call the rising price of gas an “advantage” for the company. The email was thought to be related to an Applebee’s location in Lawrence.
A group of employees at the Lawrence location resigned following the email’s dissemination on social media last week. The Springfield Herald-Leader reported Tuesday that at least ten employees are thought to have resigned, including manager Jake Holcomb.
“I printed a couple dozen copies of the emails, distributed throughout the restaurant, putting them around places so servers could find them,” Holcomb told the Herald-Leader. “Then, I gave everyone in the restaurant their food for free and we just left; we didn’t even close the store.”
The food service industry employs a significant number of low-wage workers, some of whom have organized in recent years to demand better pay and working conditions.
Pankratz was not oblivious to their situation: In the leaked email, he wrote, “Most of our [current] and potential employee base live paycheck to paycheck.”
Applebee’s management told The Star that Pankratz’ statement does not reflect the views of the company.
This story was originally published March 31, 2022 at 3:44 PM.
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