Health-Care Law Spurs a Shift to Part-Time Workers

[Stephanie]

Welcome to ObamaNation..you people voted for it NOW ENJOY

SNIP:
Wall St. Journal ^ | November 4, 2012 | JULIE JARGON, LOUISE RADNOFSKY and ALEXANDRA BERZON

Posted on Saturday, November 10, 2012 4:58:24 PM by grundle

Some low-wage employers are moving toward hiring part-time workers instead of full-time ones to mitigate the health-care overhaul's requirement that large companies provide health insurance for full-time workers or pay a fee.

Several restaurants, hotels and retailers have started or are preparing to limit schedules of hourly workers to below 30 hours a week. That is the threshold at which large employers in 2014 would have to offer workers a minimum level of insurance or pay a penalty starting at $2,000 for each worker.

Pillar Hotels & Resorts this summer began to focus more on hiring part-time workers among its 5,500 employees, said Chief Executive Chris Russell. The company has 210 franchise hotels, under the Sheraton, Fairfield Inns, Hampton Inns and Holiday Inns brands.

"The tendency is to say, 'Let me fill this position with a 40-hour-a-week employee.' "Mr. Russell said. "I think we have to think differently."

Pillar offers health insurance to employees who work 32 hours a week or more, but only half take it, and Mr. Russell wants to limit his exposure to rising health-care costs. He said he planned to pursue new segments of the population, such as senior citizens, to find workers willing to accept part-time employment.

CKE Restaurants Inc., parent of the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's burger chains, began two months ago to hire part-time workers to replace full-time employees who left, said Andy Puzder, CEO of the Carpinteria, Calif., company. CKE, which is owned by private-equity firm Apollo Management LP, offers limited-benefit plans to all restaurant employees, but the federal government won't allow those policies to be sold starting in 2014 because of low caps on payouts.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said the administration didn't believe the law would substantially affect employment

from
Health-Care Law Spurs a Shift to Part-Time Workers - WSJ.com

 

[Greenbeard]

Pillar Hotels & Resorts this summer began to focus more on hiring part-time workers among its 5,500 employees, said Chief Executive Chris Russell. The company has 210 franchise hotels, under the Sheraton, Fairfield Inns, Hampton Inns and Holiday Inns brands. [...]

Pillar offers health insurance to employees who work 32 hours a week or more, but only half take it, and Mr. Russell wants to limit his exposure to rising health-care costs.

So they've already been doing virtually exactly the same thing the ACA is asking them to do?

 

[Katzndogz]

Pillar Hotels & Resorts this summer began to focus more on hiring part-time workers among its 5,500 employees, said Chief Executive Chris Russell. The company has 210 franchise hotels, under the Sheraton, Fairfield Inns, Hampton Inns and Holiday Inns brands. [...]

Pillar offers health insurance to employees who work 32 hours a week or more, but only half take it, and Mr. Russell wants to limit his exposure to rising health-care costs.

So they've already been doing virtually exactly the same thing the ACA is asking them to do?

Yes. ACA gave business as out by leeway in reducing employee hours.

 

[Greenbeard]

Yes. ACA gave business as out by leeway in reducing employee hours.

It didn't give Pillar anything--they already had the exact same policies in place internally. In other words, nothing changed for them.