“We’ve been working on this internally from a number of different perspectives. One that has [us] the most concerned is the $3,000 penalty that kicks in when an employee’s portion of a premium exceeds 9.5% of Household Income.

We wanted to start to estimate what our potential liability will be after 2014 with regard to the 9.5% of Household Income provision, assuming all things being equal to where we are today. To do this, we pulled Household Income data for all 421 of our Castle trading areas, and used this to approximate the Household Income of team member households. (Most often our employees are reflective of the neighborhoods where we do business.) We then applied weighted averages to the different plans to determine approximately how many team members would have their premium amount exceed 9.5% of household income.

In present form, this provision alone would lead to approximate increased costs equal to over 55% of what we earn annually in net income (based on past 4-year average). Effectively cutting our net income in half would have [a] devastating impact on the business – cutting future expansion and more job creation at least in half. Sadly, it makes it difficult to justify growing where jobs are needed most – in lower income areas.”

– Jamie Richardson, an exec with White Castle (the hamburger chain), in a statement to House Minority Leader John Boehner on Obamacare’s effect on the company’s business.