Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Obamacare's War on Full-Time Jobs Will Sucker Punch Economy

Politics / Employment Apr 19, 2013 - 12:12 PM GMT

By: Money_Morning

Politics

David Zeiler writes: Obamacare's rules regarding hours worked and employer-sponsored healthcare coverage have entire industries looking at cutting down on their number of full-time employees in favor of more part-time employees.

Large industries affected include hotels, restaurants and retailers, as well as small businesses of all stripes.


In essence, the hefty financial burden imposed by Obamacare for having too many full-time employees is creating a huge incentive for many employers to cut workers' hours, or, in some cases, avoid hiring altogether.

Tens of millions of American workers are at risk of being denied employer-sponsored health insurance as a result, and will end up with less pay to boot.

It could be a disaster for the still-lagging U.S. economy.

"If you want to have reduced work, lower wages and economic stagnation, this is a great way to do it," Ed Haislmaier, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told FOX News.

How Obamacare Discourages Full-Time Jobs
In trying to achieve the goal of having health insurance for all Americans, Obamacare - officially known as the Affordable Care Act - created specific requirements for employers.

The Obamacare law says that every employer that has 50 or more full-time employees must offer health insurance to anyone who qualifies as full-time, defined as anyone who works at least 30 hours a week.

Employers that fail to offer health insurance as required must pay a penalty of $2,000 per worker beyond the threshold of 30 employees. Yes, that means hire No. 50 isn't a $2,000 a year penalty - it's a $40,000 a year penalty.

Of course, every hire after that incurs another $2,000 a year, so adding more full-time employees in the absence of a health insurance plan can get very expensive.

Franchise industries (like fast-food and restaurant chains) and other small businesses often operate on thin profit margins - the net profit averages 3.5 %.

That's why such businesses have rarely offered healthcare benefits in the first place. They'll do whatever it takes to stay beneath the Obamacare thresholds.

"Many stores will have to cut worker hours out of necessity. It could be the difference between staying in business or going out of business," Stephen Caldeira, president of the International Franchise Association, told The Wall Street Journal.

Obamacare could cost the franchise industry $6.4 billion and put 3.2 million jobs at risk, according to a study done in 2011 by the Hudson Institute.

Meet Obamacare's "49ers" and "29ers"
Many smaller companies have already started to limit hiring to 49 employees to avoid the Obamacare triggers, earning the nickname "49ers."

Meanwhile, service-oriented businesses are seeking to keep work weeks below 30 hours - the "29ers" - because they don't have to offer health insurance to part-time workers.

According to The Wall Street Journal, franchisees of Burger King, McDonald's, Red Lobster, KFC, Dunkin' Donuts and Taco Bell have all started to nudge employees into part-time hours.

They can't afford to wait until the law goes into effect Jan. 1 because Obamacare will base the status of employees on their work schedule in 2013.

Just this week, Regal Entertainment Group, which operates 500 movie houses in 38 states, said it has cut the schedule of thousands of employees to less than 30 hours a week. A company memo blamed the move on Obamacare.

Even some states have shifted their employment policies in response to the Obamacare requirements.

Earlier this year, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell told state agencies to reduce hours worked by part-time employees to less than 30 to avoid an estimated increase in annual health insurance costs to the state of $61 million to $110 million.

Lost Pay Will Damage U.S. Economy
The biggest losers here, of course, are the millions of workers affected by these changes.

Their reduced hours will ensure that not only will they be denied employee-sponsored health insurance, they'll also be forced by law to buy health insurance from an Obamacare exchange or face financial penalties themselves.

Worst of all, the reduced hours will mean less pay.

The last thing workers making less-than-average wages need is a pay cut.

Equally concerning is the Obamacare-generated bias toward part-time workers, which we're already seeing.

According to Gallup, part-time jobs have risen from 17.6% of the labor force last July to 20.6% in February. That's an ominous trend.

A rising proportion of part-time workers making less money will put a new drag on the U.S. economy, 70% of which is driven by consumer spending.

When you add in the number of jobs that won't be created because of companies trying to stay below the 50-employee threshold, it's clear that Obamacare is going to be a hard pill for American workers to swallow.

"Democrats who thought they were doing workers a favor by mandating health coverage can't seem to understand that it doesn't help workers to give them healthcare if they can't get a full-time job that pays the rest of their bills," The Wall Street Journal observed in a recent editorial.

Source :http://moneymorning.com/2013/04/18/obamacares-war-on-full-time-jobs-will-sucker-punch-economy/

Money Morning/The Money Map Report

©2013 Monument Street Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including on the world wide web), of content from this website, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of Monument Street Publishing. 105 West Monument Street, Baltimore MD 21201, Email: customerservice@moneymorning.com

Disclaimer: Nothing published by Money Morning should be considered personalized investment advice. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized investent advice. We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security recommended to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication, or after the mailing of printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended by Money Morning should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

Money Morning Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in