--along w/ theirs:
Posted on 06/23/2016 6:30:51 AM PDT by expat_panama
Economists have been puzzled all year over how retail employment has surged despite the fact that Wal-Mart (WMT), Macy's (M), Kohl's (KSS) and other major players were closing stores and laying off thousands of workers.
The retail hiring boom has been happening even as customers have accelerated their shift to nonstore retailers like Amazon (AMZN). Meanwhile, Home Depot... ...stopped opening new stores...
...the bottom of this mystery is...
...Shorter workweeks and more part-time workers... ...wage gains have accelerated to more than 6% from a year ago, even as the average workweek has shrunk -- to a record-short 27.8 hours for nonsupervisors in April from 29.5 hours two years ago.
The logical takeaway is that there may be less labor market slack than there appears to be...
...ObamaCare employer mandate hasn't led to the dramatic work-hour cuts that some critics feared, that's likely because employers have figured out how to minimize liability by offering coverage that qualifies as "affordable" even if it costs far more than low-wage workers can pay. Yet the mandate has clearly had an effect: The number of U.S. workers clocking just above 30 hours has fallen to a record low relative to those with work hours just below ObamaCare's full-time threshold.
New Overtime Rule
The second regulation that will encourage shorter workweeks is the Department of Labor's new overtime rule that will require time-and-a-half pay above 40 hours per week...
...retailers seeing their profit margins squeezed by higher wages and online competition, these two regulations add costs...
...For a full-time worker earning $17,500, paying $1,690 for bronze coverage with a $5,000-plus deductible qualifies as "affordable." That's $1,000 more than someone at the same income level would have to pay for an exchange plan that caps total out-of-pocket expenses at about $550 in 2016.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
--along w/ theirs:
fwiw
It used to be you would tell your employer when you wanted to work, and they would schedule you for regular hours.
Now you must block out those hours you can not work, and the computers schedule you for random hours, and you take it or leave. Unless you are willing to block out 18+ hours a day, you don’t get the job.
Can someone with an understanding of classical economics please explain the reasoning here. It sounds like communism to me - you can work, but not too hard and we will pay you, but not too much. I undestand about not exploiting people, but "exploiting labor" means giving people paid jobs. It's what capitalism does. It's only communists who pay people without exploiting them, and the Soviet Union almost starved to death because it's farmers weren't being "exploited" to grow food that people could eat.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.