Wednesday, June 25, 2014

This Week's 28 Newly Documented Examples of Employers Cutting Work Hours to Dodge ObamaCare. List Now at 429 Employers

This is from Jed Graham writing at Investors Business Daily:
The hits keep on coming — to the work hours of special education aides, school bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians, home-care workers, adjunct faculty and college students. 
With this week's addition of 28 documented examples of employers cutting work hours to dodge fines levied under ObamaCare's employer insurance mandate, IBD's list now includes 429 employers. 
(The ObamaCare Employer Mandate List, substantiated with links to news sources and public documents, is available for downloading at Investors.com.) 
Among the new additions are seven school districts, bringing the total to 130 districts where hours have been cut or permanent staff outsourced to avoid taking on new costs for employees who work at least 30 hours a week — considered full time under ObamaCare....

IBD's list of ObamaCare job and hours cuts is dominated by public-sector employers, but that undoubtedly reflects their relative transparency about work policies, some of which come up for votes before school boards or county commissions. 
Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that the workweek has also been depressed for modest-wage workers in the private sector, and the evidence points to ObamaCare's mandate as an important factor. 
One way to test for an ObamaCare effect on the workweek — suggested by White House economists, no less — is to look at whether there is a shift in the ratio of workers clocking 31 to 34 hours per week compared to those working 25 to 29 hours. 
If that ratio were stable or rising, it would be a sign that ObamaCare wasn't affecting work hours in a meaningful way, the White House has suggested. But the data signal the opposite: The ratio has plunged to the lowest level in almost 14 years....