Senate Hearing Addresses Full-Time Employment Under Obamacare

Date: January 22, 2015

www.NFIB.com
For Immediate Release
Contact:  Eric Reller
202-314-2073 or [email protected]

 

Senate Hearing
Addresses Full-Time Employment Under Obamacare

 Healthcare
Law Incentives Creating Part-Time, Not Full-Time Jobs  

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 22,
2015
As the U.S. Senate Committee on Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) takes up the vital small-business issue of
re-defining full-time employment as 40 hours under the Affordable Care Act
(ACA), the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is calling on the
Senate to pass the Forty Hours is Full-Time Act (S. 30).

“Employers
are responding to the realities of the new law,” said NFIB Vice President of
Public Policy Amanda Austin
. “While utilizing full-time workers is often
better for the business, the ACA is forcing employers to prioritize part-time
employment in order to mitigate operating costs. Congress can fix this by
defining full-time employment at the traditional 40-hour threshold.”

Under the
law, full-time employment is defined as 30 hours per week instead of the
traditional 40 hours per week definition. This was implemented as a way to
force private sector employers to offer more workers health insurance coverage,
however, an unintended response from some firms was to convert full-time
workers to part-time status – and avoid hiring full-time workers altogether.

Part-time
employment has reached an all-time high, with the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) finding that nearly 7 million Americans
working part-time would rather have a full-time job.

“Changing
the definition of full-time employment was seen as disastrous from early on in
the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Both parties recognize the
damage caused by the artificial employment definition under ACA and it should
be an easy vote to fix this aspect of the law to protect workers and small
businesses across the country, added
Austin
.”

The House of Representatives passed a legislative fix
earlier this month and Senators Susan Collins, Joe Donnelly, Lisa Murkowski,
and Joe Manchin introduced the bipartisan Forty Hours is
Full-Time Act (S. 30) in the Senate. NFIB
appreciates the efforts of the HELP committee to highlight the very real costs
of the ACA to both employers and employees – and urges to Senate to move
forward on this bipartisan legislation and to send it to the President’s desk
for his signature.

###

 

NFIB
is the nation’s leading small business advocacy association, with offices in
Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals. Founded in 1943 to give
small-business owners a voice in public policy-making, NFIB’s policy positions
are set by its 350,000 business-owner members, who send their views directly to
state and federal lawmakers through NFIB’s unique member-only ballot. NFIB’s
mission is to promote and protect the right of our members to own, operate and grow
their businesses. More information is available online at www.NFIB.com/news

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