The Obamacare Fall-Out Continues: Retailers Make Historic Cuts To Hours

I’ve had one small business owner who is a friend of mine tell me that she’s dropping her company’s health care because of Obamacare. However, other businesses are going a different route and are cutting back on employee hours to make sure their workers aren’t eligible under the Affordable Care Act. This was an expected issue, but it may be even worse than people expected.

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Retailers are cutting worker hours at a rate not seen in more than three decades – a sudden shift that can only be explained by the onset of ObamaCare’s employer mandates.
Nonsupervisory employees logged an average 30.0 hours per week in April, the shortest retail workweek since early 2010, Labor Department data out Friday show.

…This reversal doesn’t appear related to the economy, which has been consistently mediocre. Instead, all evidence points to the coming launch of ObamaCare, which the retail industry has warned would cause just such a result.

Starting in 2014, large employers will face nondeductible fines of up to $3,000 per full-time worker who gets subsidized coverage via ObamaCare exchanges because qualifying coverage isn’t available via the workplace. Next year’s fines will be influenced by staffing levels in the second half of 2013.

One way for employers to minimize the costs of providing “affordable” coverage to modest-wage workers is to shift more work to part-time, defined as less than 30 hours per week under ObamaCare.

A multitude of companies have said they’re considering a shift to more part-time work. Now, beyond the anecdotal reports, the ObamaCare effect is becoming evident in official data.

The Labor Department also reported last week that total employee benefits in service occupations fell 0.3% in Q1, the first decline in more than a decade of data.

Why are these employers doing this? Because Obamacare drives up the cost of providing health care and employers are looking for ways to save money.

The truth that Democrats didn’t want to admit when they were foisting this abomination on the American people is that Obamacare will reduce the quality of medical care, drive up the cost, make it harder to find a doctor, cost a lot of people their current coverage and it will also lead to people being denied care they’re currently getting to save the government money. It’s a terrible deal all the way around for the American people and the Democrats deserve to pay a HUGE PRICE for it in the 2014 elections.

Also see,

The Roofers Union Calls for the Repeal of Obamacare

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