To Avoid Insuring the Part-Timers, Reduce Their Hours
Starting in 2014, businesses may face penalties if they don’t cover full-time workers, but they won’t be penalized for not covering employees who work less than 30 hours per week. In a recent survey of 800 employers by human resources consultant Mercer, more than half of those that don’t provide insurance to workers at that threshold said they would consider reducing workers’ hours.
Full article on health insurance for part-time workers.
So what you’re saying is that all of those people who have children and want a part time schedule are now getting one because of health insurance? All those who want to go to school and work at the same time can do it?
I think this is a step in the right direction, even if it comes through the back door. It will help break us out of the traditional 40 hour (really 50-60 hour) work week and will help create more flexibile arrangements.
Unintended consequences are an inevitable byproduct of regulations designed to change behavior. If there is one thing that poverty researchers understand, it is that getting a first job is essentially to upward mobility for low-income people. For people with few skills, a low-paying job (with few benefits) is often the only job training they receive. These jobs often teach them the social and behavioral skills they need to move up the job ladder to better paying jobs in the future. Mandating costly health coverage for fulltime workers in firms of a certain size (51 or more workers) is creates a disincentive for firms to grow beyond 50 workers; or hire workers beyond 30 hours per week. To the extent mandatory coverage raises the cost of hiring moderate-wage workers, fewer will be hired. In many cases, firms will begin to substitute capital (i.e. machines) for labor. Workers with higher skills will be hired to operate the machines. Workers with little training will become part of a long-term under-employed population that never works its way out of poverty.
I anticipate that ObamaCare will have the unintended consequence of producing more part-time employees in the government run health care exchanges by reducing the number of full-time employees that currently have health insurance. This will reduce the number of hours worked, which will reduce income, which will reduce well being, which leads me to ask: Why is President Obama punishing us?
I think the broader issue is that employers are going to reduce their hiring altogether.
Workers will work fewer hours, no more than 30 hours per week, because that 31st hour will be very expensive for the employer.
Small business is getting screwed. But then I always thought small business was going to get screwed.