Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Yes, Some Companies Are Cutting Hours In Response To Obamacare

Ben Casselman writes:
Obamacare hasn’t led to a shift from full-time employment to part-time. But the evidence suggests it has led some employers to limit the hours of workers who were already part-time...

For those who haven’t been following this debate closely, here are the basics: The 2010 health law requires large employers to offer health insurance to anyone working “full-time,” which the law defines as 30 hours a week. ..

 As the chart below shows, the share of part-timers working just below 30 hours a week has been rising for roughly the past two years, while the share working just over 30 hours has been falling...

Other evidence also supports the idea that at least some employers are capping workers’ hours in response to the law. Average weekly hours are rising in the economy as a whole, but are falling for workers in many of the sectors most likely to be affected by the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate — industries with lots of low-wage, part-time workers who historically haven’t been offered health insurance...

Taken together, the evidence suggests that the health law has likely led a few hundred thousand workers to see their hours cut or capped. That’s small in the context of an economy with 150 million workers. But it isn’t a minor issue for those workers. Most of them are among the economy’s most vulnerable: low-wage, part-time workers who likely have few other options.




1 comment:

  1. Obamacare hasn’t led to a shift from full-time employment to part-time. But the evidence suggests it has led some employers to limit the hours of workers who were already part-time...how do you sign up for obamacare

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