Whole Foods CEO: Obamacare Forcing Us to Hire More Part-timers

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey says Obamacare is forcing his company to hire more part-timers.

The company has historically had a 75-percent full-time workforce, Mackey said Wednesday on Fox News Channel's "Your World with Neil Cavuto," but next year that will drop to 70 percent. 

If expenses continue to rise, he said, the percentage may drop even lower.

Mackey said his employees are likely to see depressed wage increases or higher out-of-pocket expenses as the company seeks to make up for the extra money it's being charged for coverage mandated by the Affordable Care Act. Whole Foods self-insures.

Guest host Stuart Varney told Mackey he sounded like a libertarian.

"I'm a conscious capitalist, I believe in capitalism," Mackey said. "I believe free markets are the best way to organize society, and any system that supports capitalism I'm in favor of." 

Mackey in January warned that Obamacare wasn't socialist as he had said previously, but fascist, because the government doesn't own the means of production, though it controls them.

As Obamacare was being debated in 2009, Mackey wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal with his own suggestions for healthcare reform.

"Unfortunately, none of those suggestions have been implemented." Mackey said Wednesday.

Via: Newsmax
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WZ Exclusive: David’s Bridal Transitioning ALL Full-Timers To Part Time Because of Obamacare…

I just had lunch with a friend who is a manager of a David’s Bridal. She told me all store managers received an email from the CEO of David’s Bridal.  The e-mail explains that all store employees will begin to transition to part-time employment as of last week.   The e-mail goes on to say the decision was made as a result of the impact providing insurance to employees would cause to the company, in accordance with the requirements of the ACA.

David’s Bridal employs thousands of employees across America in its 300 stores.

Via: Weasel Zippers

ECONOMY ADDS A DISAPPOINTING 148,000 JOBS IN SEPTEMBER

The Labor Department reported the economy created 148,000 jobs in September after adding 193,000 the prior month--forecasters had expected a much better showing. Unemployment fell to 7.2 percent, largely because 91,000 more adults chose not to participate in the labor force.

In September, anticipation of the government shutdown may have somewhat influenced hiring, but those effects are difficult to discern. For example, while uncertainty caused firms to delay, it may have encouraged others to rely on multiple part-timers actually boosting the jobs count.

In October, some impact from furloughing government employees will be felt, but experience with past similar events indicates the overall drag on the economy and jobs growth will prove imperceptible by next spring. Simply, much of the lost government and consumer spending will be made up, especially since federal employees will receive back pay.

In 2013, nearly half of the employment growth has been in part-time positions. Since January, 456,000 more adults reported working part-time positions, while 525,000 indicated they had obtained full-time employment.

Obama Care's mandates for employer paid health insurance coverage encourage more part-time hiring. Also, driving this trend are the growing importance of services like retailing and hospitality, rigidity, and visceral anti-business campaigns of unions--such as those targeting McDonalds and Wal-Mart.

Via: Breitbart

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Maria Bartiromo: Obamacare Making America a ‘Part-Time Employment Country’

CNBC host Maria Bartiromo accused the Affordable Care Act of turning the United States into a “part-time employment country” on Sunday’s Meet the Press. She said that there are incentives within the health care reform law which create an incentive for business to cut back their employees’ hours.

“Beyond the glitches, there are other issues and that has had implications with the goal we’re supposed to have, and that is job creation,” Bartiromo said. “Businesses have changed their plans as a result of Obamacare.”

RELATED: Poll: 41% Of Small Businesses Froze Hiring Due To Obamacare, 19% Have Laid Off Employees

“We are becoming something of a part-time employment country,” she continued. “We’re seeing some groups moved off of health care from business because business is complaining that it’s too expensive.”

Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne said that it was “not clear” that there was any evidence to support Bartiromo’s charge. He noted that America had been moving towards being a “part-time employment country” before the ACA was passed.

Watch the clip below via NBC:

Via: Mediaite.com

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Obamacare Mandate: Anyone Who Works 30Hr Week Is Now 'Full-Time'

(CNSNews.com) – A little-known section in the ObamaCare health reform law defines “full-time” work as averaging only 30 hours per week, a definition that will affect some employers who utilize part-time workers to trim the cost of complying with the ObamaCare rule that says businesses with 50 or more workers must provide health insurance or pay a fine.

“The term ‘full-time employee’ means, with respect to any month, an employee who is employed on average at least 30 hours of service per week,” section 1513 of the lawreads.  (Scroll down to section 4, paragraph A.)

That section, known as the employer mandate, requires any business with 50 or more full-time employees to provide at least the minimum level of government-defined health coverage to those employees.

In other words, a business must provide insurance if it has 50 or more employees working an average of just 30 hours per week, which is 10 hours per week fewer than the traditional 40-hour work week.

If an employer meets the requirements and does not offer health insurance, it must pay a penalty per employee for each month it does not offer coverage – not exceeding $750 per employee over the course of a year.

The obscure provision recently reemerged in regulations issued by the IRS for how employers must account for which workers are full-time and which ones are not.

Via: CNS News

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