Results 1 to 12 of 12

Thread: A Nation of Part-Time Workers, Thanks to Obamacare

  1. #1

    A Nation of Part-Time Workers, Thanks to Obamacare

    http://reason.com/blog/2014/10/16/a-...kers-thanks-to

    The Affordable Care Act not only makes hiring full-time workers more expensive for employers than part-timers, according to a new research paper, it also directly penalizes full-time workers. That will drive at least some people to—perversely—reduce their hours in order to increase their compensation. The end result for the country is likely to be the equivalent of 4 million fewer full-time-workers.

    In "The Affordable Care Act and the New Economics of Part-Time Work," Casey B. Mulligan, professor of economics at the University of Chicago, writes, "Three major provisions of the ACA introduce incentives to change the workweek. The most obvious is the explicit penalty on assessable large employers that do not offer health insurance to their full-time employees." Employers are not required to offer benefits to part-time employees, creating an obvious incentive to reduce working hours and rely on part-time and contract employees instead of full-time workers.

    In fact, Federal Reserve Banks around the country find exactly that pattern underway when they survey employers. After polling manufacturers and business leaders in August, the New York Federal Reserve Bank found:

    About 20 percent of respondents in both surveys said that they were reducing the number of workers and/or raising the share of part-time workers. A similar proportion said they were paying less compensation per worker because of the ACA, and a similar proportion of manufacturers said they were outsourcing more work.
    The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas received remarkably similar answers to a survey of service-sector employers. Because of costs imposed by the Affordable Care Act, 20.8 percent of them said the number of people they employ will be lower (2.7 percent say it will be higher). And 22.4 percent say they'll use a higher proportion of cost-reducing part-time, contract, or temporary workers (7.1 percent will use fewer).

    Federal Reserve Banks in Philadelphia and Atlanta reported similar responses.

    But Mulligan adds that, in addition to disincentives for employers to use full-time workers, the ACA also nudges workers to reduce their hours with the "provision that full-time employees and their families cannot receive subsidized health coverage on the ACA's health insurance exchanges...unless their employer fails to offer affordable coverage." Some employees also have an incentive to work less because of "the provision that gives lower subsidies to families with higher incomes." Under the law, a good many workers stand to make more money, once subsidies are included, by working below the part-time threshold than by working full-time.

    These pressures on workers to put in fewer hours may actually be stronger than those more widely discussed incentives for employers to cut hours.

    How big a disincentive? Mulligan compares a 40-hour-per-week full-timer at $52,000 annually to a 29-hour-per-week part-timer at $37,700. After taxes, expenses, and subsidies, the part-timer walks away with $28,854, compared to $27,021 for the full-timer.


    The bottom line, says Mulligan, is that:
    • The ACA's employment taxes create strong incentives to work less. The health subsidies' structure will put millions in a position in which working part time (29 hours or fewer, as defined by the ACA) will yield more disposable income than working their normal full-time schedule.
    • The reduction in weekly employment due to these ACA disincentives is estimated to be about 3 percent, or about 4 million fewer full-time-equivalent workers. This is the aggregate result of the law’s employment disincentives, and is nearly double the impact most recently estimated by the Congressional Budget Office.
    • Nearly half of American workers will be affected by at least one of the ACA's employment taxes—and this does not account for the indirect effect on others as the labor market adjusts.
    • The ACA will push more women than men into part-time work. Because a greater percentage of women work just above 30 hours per week, it is women who will be more likely to drop to part-time work as defined by the ACA.

    Hmmm...Many Americans can make more by working less and taking tax-funded subsidies. And we'll have the equivalent of 4 million fewer people working, as a result (and paying the taxes for those subsidies).

    You have to wonder what that will do to the economy.
    Based on the idea of natural rights, government secures those rights to the individual by strictly negative intervention, making justice costless and easy of access; and beyond that it does not go. The State, on the other hand, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.
    --Albert J. Nock



  2. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  3. #2
    A nice side effect. Making everyone part time requires hiring a few more part-timers to get the rest of the work done. And since Bureau of Labor statistics make absolutely no distinction between the gainfully employed and people starving on part time wages, this should work wonders on the unemployment numbers.

    And when people commute three or four times a day--to Job A, from Job A to Job B, and home--obviously the oil lobby won't be unhappy about it. So there' another plus.
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  4. #3
    Another consequence is that the job market for full-time work has become fiercely competitive. You've got a growing number of part-time workers applying for a decreasing number of full-time jobs.
    Last edited by ifthenwouldi; 10-16-2014 at 12:39 PM.

  5. #4
    Think of all the "full time" government employees that are required to keep up with all the part-timers subsidies and benefits...

  6. #5
    But but "We're #1"! In 3rd World Economies... Seems like the only full time workers are Govt Employees and Policy Enforcers.
    1776 > 1984

    The FAILURE of the United States Government to operate and maintain an
    Honest Money System , which frees the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, is the single largest contributing factor to the World's current Economic Crisis.

    The Elimination of Privacy is the Architecture of Genocide

    Belief, Money, and Violence are the three ways all people are controlled

    Quote Originally Posted by Zippyjuan View Post
    Our central bank is not privately owned.

  7. #6
    The U.S. has been a nation of part time workers for more than 10 years, where have you been? People work 2 jobs,now edging onto 3 for some

  8. #7
    Anybody could see this coming from a mile away.Along with smaller businesses capping their permanent employees at 49.
    Inspired by US Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, this site is dedicated to facilitating grassroots initiatives that aim to restore a sovereign limited constitutional Republic based on the rule of law, states' rights and individual rights. We seek to enshrine the original intent of our Founders to foster respect for private property, seek justice, provide opportunity, and to secure individual liberty for ourselves and our posterity.


    A police state is a small price to pay for living in the freest country on earth.

  9. #8
    As long as the crony-capitalist health care system is propped-up for a few more years the ACA is a success!
    The proper concern of society is the preservation of individual freedom; the proper concern of the individual is the harmony of society.

    "Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow." - Byron

    "Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe." - Milton



  10. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  11. #9
    so, just go on strike for 50 bucks an hour...

    less hours...more take home...more spending...economy bounces back..

    win win.................................right?

  12. #10
    I haven't been an employee in the US for years. How is it now versus 2010? It felt like it was only going to get worse at the time.

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by MRK View Post
    I haven't been an employee in the US for years. How is it now versus 2010? It felt like it was only going to get worse at the time.
    Its only gotten worse.
    1776 > 1984

    The FAILURE of the United States Government to operate and maintain an
    Honest Money System , which frees the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, is the single largest contributing factor to the World's current Economic Crisis.

    The Elimination of Privacy is the Architecture of Genocide

    Belief, Money, and Violence are the three ways all people are controlled

    Quote Originally Posted by Zippyjuan View Post
    Our central bank is not privately owned.

  14. #12
    This kind of thing is why I've been looking more into "non-jobs" lately. http://nonjob.org/
    Last edited by heavenlyboy34; 10-23-2014 at 08:20 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Torchbearer
    what works can never be discussed online. there is only one language the government understands, and until the people start speaking it by the magazine full... things will remain the same.
    Hear/buy my music here "government is the enemy of liberty"-RP Support me on Patreon here Ephesians 6:12



Similar Threads

  1. Nevada's sex workers embrace Obamacare
    By liberalnurse in forum Obamacare
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 11-25-2013, 05:14 AM
  2. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 08-14-2013, 09:42 AM
  3. Replies: 5
    Last Post: 06-18-2013, 06:27 AM
  4. Business shifts to part-time workers over Obamacare.
    By phill4paul in forum Obamacare
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 11-06-2012, 11:07 AM
  5. ObamaCare Shocker: Send in the Social Workers
    By FrankRep in forum Obamacare
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 08-11-2009, 10:11 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •