How The Outcome of The Presidential Election Will Affect The Restaurant Industry

A lot is riding on the results of the upcoming presidential election, and that’s especially true for the beleaguered restaurant industry, which has been lobbying tirelessly for a new relief package whose fate is very much tied up in partisan politics. Still, it’s not entirely clear which outcome will better serve the restaurant industry. To give restaurant owners a preview of what they might be in for next year, Nation’s Restaurant News has broken down both candidates’ platforms with an eye toward the policies that will impact the industry.

NRN’s analysis looks at the following key issues: covid and pandemic relief; minimum wage; healthcare and paid sick leave; and immigration. Rather than score points to either candidate for each category, NRN summarizes their platform to let readers decide for themselves which would better benefit the restaurant industry.

While some of those categories will be fairly straight-forward to anyone who has paid any attention to politics over the past half-decade (Biden supports raising the federal minimum wage, Trump would keep it as a state issue), others are not so clear.

On covid relief, surely the most pressing issue facing the industry, Biden’s platform offers a seven-point recovery plan that includes a small-business fund, though it is unclear if and how franchisee-owned businesses would be categorized under such a plan. Trump, on the other hand, has offered conflicting views of what his administration would do to help businesses in 2021. (It’s worth noting that the Trump administration, breaking from tradition, has not officially offered a policy platform for his reelection campaign.)

> In early October, after he was released from Walter Reed Medical Center after contracting the coronavirus himself, the president said via Twitter that he was calling off negotiations on more relief beyond the summer packages. Trump later said he would approve narrowly drafted legislation on a new round of the Paycheck Protection Program and perhaps another round of direct stimulus checks. But three days later, on Oct. 9, he stated: “Covid Relief Negotiations are moving along. Go Big!”

The restaurant industry has suffered catastrophic losses throughout 2020 and is projected to lose $240 billion by the end of the year. It is increasingly unlikely that a new stimulus bill will be passed until after the election. The restaurant industry will need all the help it can get in 2021, regardless of who wins the election.