Small Business Pushes Congressional Delegation to Scrap 30-Hour Work Week
Providence (January 6, 2015) – The National Federation of
Independent Business (NFIB) today urged the state’s entire congressional
delegation to support a bill that is coming up for a vote in the House this
week. HR 30 would scrap a controversial provision of the Affordable Care Act
that creates an incentive for employers to avoid creating full-time jobs.
“One of the many unintended consequences of Obamacare is
that it creates downward pressure on full-time employees and people seeking
full-time work,” said NFIB Rhode Island State Director Bill Vernon. “No
provision is more damaging than the 30-hour work week, and we are hoping to see
the repeal of this legislation soon, before it is too late.”
Under the law, full-time work is defined as 30 hours per
week instead of the traditional 40 hours per week. The Obama
administration pushed for the provision as a way to force private sector
employers to offer more workers health care coverage. What they didn’t
expect is that some firms would respond by converting full-time workers to
part-time status and avoid hiring altogether new workers at 30 hours.
According to the government’s own data, the 30-hour work
week may indeed be killing full-time jobs. The federal Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) finds that there are nearly 7 million Americans working
part-time who would rather have a full-time job. That’s a historic high.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the ratio of part-time
workers who would rather have a full-time job remains elevated, suggesting the
rise of a part-time workforce. In November, according to BLS, the number
of full-time workers dropped by 150,000 while the number of part-time jobs
increased by 77,000.
All of this was easily predictable, according to Vernon.
“There could not have been another foreseeable result,” he
said. “That provision not only painted a bull’s eye on Americans
who work more than 30 hours a week, but it created a financial imperative for
some employers to cut back on hours.”
HR 30 has received bipartisan support and is up for a vote
in the House on Thursday, January 8, 2015.
“It has bipartisan backing and we strongly urge our
representatives in Washington to support it.” said
Vernon.