Posted on 11/05/2012 5:45:02 PM PST by markomalley
If you are looking for a full-time job, prepare to be disappointed if President Obama wins re-election Tuesday. Since Obama was sworn into office in 2009, the number of Americans with full-time jobs has actually fallen by 370,000. The number of Americans with part-time jobs, by contrast, is up 1.5 million. Jobs are being created in the Obama economy, but they're not the type of jobs Americans can live on. And Obama's policies are clearly contributing to the shift.
Last month, we noted that Darden Restaurants, the parent company of popular chains like Olive Garden and Red Lobster, stopped replacing full-time employees who left the company. Instead, the company announced, it would only be hiring part-timers to meet its staffing needs. The reason? Obamacare. Obama's signature domestic initiative fines employers with 50 or more full-time workers $2,000 for every full-time employee who does not have government-approved health insurance.
Many retail, food service and hospitality firms, including Darden, already offer all of their full-time employees bare-bones health insurance plans. But these plans, which have coverage limits, will become illegal under Obamacare in 2014. Darden and other firms face a stark choice: Buy more expensive health insurance for their full-time employees (which normally costs more than $5,000 for each employee), pay the $2,000 fine or hire fewer full-time workers.
More and more employers are going this last route.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Pillar Hotels and Resorts (parent company of Sheraton and other hotel chains), CKE Restaurants Inc. (parent company of Hardee's and Carl's Jr.) and Anna's Linens Inc. have all started to replace full-time departures with part-time hires. According to a July survey of retail and hospitality companies by Mercer consulting, 32 percent of firms said they were likely to reduce the number of employees working 30 hours or more per week.
Not only does this reduction in hours per worker translate to less take-home pay for the workers who need it most, but a move away from employer-sponsored health insurance will undermine Obamacare's already shaky fiscal foundation. The more people who can find only part-time work, the more people the federal government will have to subsidize through the health insurance exchanges that Obamacare establishes. The Congressional Budget Office assumed that up to 800,000 full-time jobs would be turned into part-time jobs because of Obamacare's employer health mandate fines. If that number is low -- and the surge in part-time employment since Obamacare became law suggests that it is -- then Obamacare's true cost will skyrocket past its already unaffordable $1.76 trillion price tag.
The U.S. economy may have added new jobs every month for the past 32 months, but under Obama's "new normal," part-time jobs may be the "jobs of the future" he keeps talking about.
I thought hussein recently said that full time now was 30 hours. If so, then no one will be getting over 29 hours and will have to work two 29 hour jobs just to make ends meet. Not that people can find one job these days.
Even IPR reported on this this morning. The reporter specifically noted, “even though this wasn’t supposed to happen,” geez - really?
Two other solutions come to mind:
1. Ensure that one of the principals is a Catholic, as I believe that Catholics will succeed in defeating this mandate in the courts
2. Create subsidiaries that employ fewer than 50, all of whom are hired to fill roles as a third party vendor. This is different than an ‘independent contractor’ situation, in that workers are employees of the cusidiary corporation.
This would be a relationship similar to hiring a janitorial service to provide in-house cleaning services.
The scope of duties would have to be narrow, but it could be a practical solution for some needs for some companies.
The new normal, along with 8% unemployment and trillion dollar deficits.
oooppss.....cusidiary? listening to Rudy Giuliani right now..no multi-tasking for me! I meant ‘subsidiary’ !
I got my hours cut as well. Obama is the worst president ever. :(
Win-win for Hussein.
Even a 35 hour work-week diminishes US productivity by something like 5/40 or 12.5%.
Anything to hurt America is good for the Fraud in the White House and his quest to “fundamentally transform America”.
‘Part-time America’, Medicare cuts and the IPAB board make 0-care unworkable and it will fail.
1. Part time workers will not have health insurance and it is an open question whether there will be any functioning state exchanges. Many conservative states have openly opposed the exchanges. Other Leftist states might have plans for state exchanges, but these are the very states with bloated budgets and the exchanges will be impossible to fund.
2. Part time workers that become sick will lose their jobs and go on Medicaid, further burdening state budgets. Other part time workers will decide that work is not worth it and will quit, go on welfare, get a cash job and go on Medicaid.
3. Medicare patients will be rationed by IPAB and lower reimbursements and more regulations will drive physicians and even some hospitals and nursing homes out of business.
4. With fewer people paying into the exchanges, and sicker people enrolled in the exchanges, prices will skyrocket for those that do not qualify for a subsidy. The subsidy will produce income lock, that is, employees will be less likely to accept raises that would eliminate their subsidy.
5. All of the above results in fewer total hours worked and consequently, less tax revenue resulting in a continual negative feedback loop.
Isn’t the CEO of Darden an Obama thug?
It’s all part of the plan to bring this nation down to size. Everyone, except for the nomenklatura, should just be getting by with a subsistence existence.
Yup - caved to that fat ass First Wookie and made the portions smaller and caved to Commie in Chief and made work days and paychecks smaller too.
I am getting about 30 hrs per week on my part time job. It’s going to be cut down to 24 next year if Obama gets reelected. I pay for my own insurance. WIth reduced hours, I’ll have less money to pay the premiums. Makes me sick.
,
I am getting about 30 hrs per week on my part time job. It’s going to be cut down to 24 next year if Obama gets reelected. I pay for my own insurance. WIth reduced hours, I’ll have less money to pay the premiums. Makes me sick.
,
I am getting about 30 hrs per week on my part time job. It’s going to be cut down to 24 next year if Obama gets reelected. I pay for my own insurance. WIth reduced hours, I’ll have less money to pay the premiums. Makes me sick.
,
I know of one company that just knocked everyone to part time. They are encouraging peple to sign up for overtime (anything over 32) of course the overtime is straight time, I would guess that it is the only way the company can survive.
Even IPR reported on this this morning. The reporter specifically noted, “even though this wasn’t supposed to happen,” geez - really?
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The road to hell...
It’s probably the most damaging of all his bills over the course of his term. Dropping to 30 hours/week hurts lots of folks just getting by.
I suppose in Obama’s world our hourly compensation is supposed to go up.
I'm not sure if the government saw this part as a "positive" from Obamacare, but given the number of people who will have to pick up a second part time job just to make ends meet, will help lower the unemployment numbers, as a single person will count as having a job TWICE!
Mark
It's worked for decades...
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