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Many cash-strapped cities and counties facing the prospect of shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars in new health-care costs under the Affordable Care Act are opting instead to reduce the number of hours their part-time employees work.
obamacare-300x199_image_982wThe decisions to cut employee hours come 16 months before employers — including state and local governments — will be required to offer health-care coverage to employees who work at least 30 hours a week. Some local officials said the cuts are happening now either because of labor contracts that must be negotiated in advance, or because the local governments worry that employees who work at least 30 hours in the months leading up to the January 2015 implementation date would need to be included in their health-care plans.
On Tuesday, Middletown Township, N.J. said it would reduce the hours of 25 part-time workers to avoid up to $775,000 in increased annual health-care costs. Earlier this month, Bee County, Tex., said it would limit its part-time workers to 24 hours per week when the new fiscal year starts Oct. 1.
Last month, department heads in Brevard County, Fla., were told to plan similar cuts in advance of the 2015 deadline. Brevard County Insurance Director Jerry Visco estimated the new mandate would cost the county $10,000 per part-time employee — or $1.38 million a year if all 138 part-time employees who work more than 30 hours a week are covered, he told Florida Today. The Brevard County libraries have already cut hours for 37 employees.
Additionally...
As of June 2013, U.S. median household income has fallen by 4.4 percent since the "economic recovery" began in June 2009, Sentier said. And it is now 6.1 percent below the pre-crisis December 2007 level.
During the recovery, the unemployment rate and the duration of joblessness remained high, dragging down the median annual household income to its low point of $50,722 in August 2011.
Based on our data, almost every group is worse off now than it was four years ago, with the exception of households with householders 65 to 74 years old, said Gordon Green of Sentier Research.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/08/22/local-governments-cutting-hours-over-obamacare-costs/?clsrd
obamacare-300x199_image_982wThe decisions to cut employee hours come 16 months before employers — including state and local governments — will be required to offer health-care coverage to employees who work at least 30 hours a week. Some local officials said the cuts are happening now either because of labor contracts that must be negotiated in advance, or because the local governments worry that employees who work at least 30 hours in the months leading up to the January 2015 implementation date would need to be included in their health-care plans.
On Tuesday, Middletown Township, N.J. said it would reduce the hours of 25 part-time workers to avoid up to $775,000 in increased annual health-care costs. Earlier this month, Bee County, Tex., said it would limit its part-time workers to 24 hours per week when the new fiscal year starts Oct. 1.
Last month, department heads in Brevard County, Fla., were told to plan similar cuts in advance of the 2015 deadline. Brevard County Insurance Director Jerry Visco estimated the new mandate would cost the county $10,000 per part-time employee — or $1.38 million a year if all 138 part-time employees who work more than 30 hours a week are covered, he told Florida Today. The Brevard County libraries have already cut hours for 37 employees.
Additionally...
As of June 2013, U.S. median household income has fallen by 4.4 percent since the "economic recovery" began in June 2009, Sentier said. And it is now 6.1 percent below the pre-crisis December 2007 level.
During the recovery, the unemployment rate and the duration of joblessness remained high, dragging down the median annual household income to its low point of $50,722 in August 2011.
Based on our data, almost every group is worse off now than it was four years ago, with the exception of households with householders 65 to 74 years old, said Gordon Green of Sentier Research.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/08/22/local-governments-cutting-hours-over-obamacare-costs/?clsrd
