The Obvious Has Apparently Happened

Published March 25, 2015

The Wall Street Journal reports today on a study showing that what pretty much everyone with any basic economic understanding predicted has come to pass, that the 30-hour ‘full-time’ employee definition in Obamacare has caused many firms to cap their employees at less than 30 hours.

Health Overhaul Leads to Shorter Work Hours

The Affordable Care Act, signed by President Obama five years ago this week, sparked a host of changes. For some workers, the law’s legacy amounts to fewer hours of paid work.

The law’s requirement that larger employers provide affordable insurance to workers putting in 30-plus hour weeks has led some companies to cap the number of hours employees can log. A new survey out Tuesday from the Society for Human Resource Management finds that 14% of employers have cut back on hours for part-time employees, and an additional 6% plan to do so.  The survey, which included more than 740 human resources professionals, found that a small subset of companies were considering reducing hours for full-time employees too.

Just a guess, but I’m going to say the 20 percent of employers who have or are planning to cut hours because of Obamacare’s definition of full-time work are businesses who mostly hire relatively young, low-wage, inexperienced workers, meaning Obamacare is directly limiting their income.

And then they wonder why Obamacare remains unpopular…