Previously on this blog, we wrote about how some business owners in the retail and service sectors spoke openly about the idea of trimming hours in order to providing health insurance policies to all employees. The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, includes a provision that requires a firm to offer insurance to an employee if they work more than 30 hours per week. Failure to do so results in a per-worker fine that can cost thousands of dollars per year.
The results of this policy are now beginning to be felt by employees across in the country in a wide range of industries. According to a report by the Los Angeles Times, even municipal workers are seeing their hours docked to stay beneath the 30-hour threshold. The City of Long Beach, California, which employees approximately 1,600 individuals, is reducing worker's schedules to an average of 27 hours per week in a bid to avoid having to provide coverage. This move is expected to save the city $2 million in expected health care costs.
The Times also noted that higher education institutions are trimming professor hours – rendering them part-timers – to keep their own insurance expenses down. Critics of these moves say that it will result in a lower-skilled workforce but acknowledge that businesses and organizations are thinking about their economic survival.
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