{"id":221,"date":"2012-11-07T16:00:59","date_gmt":"2012-11-07T16:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/?p=221"},"modified":"2012-11-07T16:00:59","modified_gmt":"2012-11-07T16:00:59","slug":"under-the-limit-obamacare-is-creating-a-part-time-workforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/?p=221","title":{"rendered":"Under the Limit \u2013 Obamacare is Creating a Part-Time Workforce"},"content":{"rendered":"

I talk a lot about how Obama\u2019s new regulations are hurting employment and growth.\u00a0 In my opinion economists tend to overlook the problem because A) it\u2019s impossible to quantify and B) it doesn\u2019t fit standard macro paradigms they studied in grad school.\u00a0 Here is a compelling datapoint that shows why over-regulation matters and ends up hurting the purported beneficiaries.\u00a0 The Wall Street Journal<\/strong> ran a story titled, Health Law Spurs Shift in Hours: Some Low-Wage Employers Seek to Avoid Overhaul\u2019s Insurance Requirements With More Part-timers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Labor-intensive service companies such as restaurant chains and hotel chains have to provide health insurance to \u201cfull time employees,\u201d defined as those who work at least 30 hours a week.\u00a0 And not just any health insurance \u2013 the expensive “soup-to-nuts”\u00a0plan mandated by Obamacare.\u00a0 Solution: limit employees to less than 30 hours per week.\u00a0 This is terrible for workers; they don\u2019t get health coverage and now\u00a0will have to commute between two jobs to get enough hours of work.\u00a0 This hurts U.S. productivity by wasting time and energy spent commuting between jobs.<\/p>\n

This is a great way to keep the poor in poverty.\u00a0 Many of these folks are in low-paid jobs but fairly stable jobs\u00a0that, however, provide some upward mobility to mid-level managerial positions. The perverse effects of Obamacare will make it tougher for them to climb the occupational ladder.\u00a0 We are talking about a big slice of the labor force; according to the BLS, \u201cRetail Trade” plus \u201cAccommodations and Food Service\u201d equal 23.8% of the private labor force.<\/p>\n

In addition to prompting large employers to cut the number of full-time workers, Obamacare encourages small businesses to stay small, because it only applies to companies with over fifty workers. So thousands of employers will figure out a way to stay \u201cunder the limit.\u201d\u00a0 A few years from now, there will be a lot more companies with 45-50 workers than 51-55 workers.\u00a0 I understand this pattern already exists in Europe with similarly ill-conceived laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I talk a lot about how Obama\u2019s new regulations are hurting employment and growth.\u00a0 In my opinion economists tend to overlook the problem because A) it\u2019s impossible to quantify and B) it doesn\u2019t fit standard macro paradigms they studied in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[45,14,44],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-employment","tag-obamacare","tag-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wallstreetandkstreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}