Trinity Capital LLC was engaged to produce a report on the potential impact of “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009” on the U.S. restaurant industry for distribution to the U.S. Congress and House of Representatives.

The restaurant industry is one of largest in the United States accounting for 9% of the workforce and 4% of gross  domestic product. The typical restaurant earns significantly less than $100K in profit, and cannot afford to pay healthcare costs for all of their employees  under the present market conditions.

The conclusions of the report are as follows:

• The pending healthcare reform legislation will ravage the restaurant industry
  
  
• Increased costs and penalties associated with the proposed legislation will add approximately  $15,000 to $40,000 in annual costs where restaurants typically earn $25,000 - $100,000 per year
  
  
• These added costs may result in the closure of over 100,000 restaurants and the subsequent loss of roughly 2.6 million jobs
  
  
• Store closures of this scale will eliminate more than $27 billion in state and federal tax revenues