If you’d like to discuss employment or health care law, contact David Weissman, director of the Rose Law Group Employment Law and Managed Health Care Law Practice, dweissman@roselawgroup.com
Many businesses plan to bring on more part-time workers in 2013, cut hours of full-time employees, or curtail hiring because of the new health care law, reports USA Today.
The paper notes that under the Affordable Care Act, businesses that employ at least 50 full-time workers — or the equivalent, including part-time workers — must offer health insurance to staffers who work at least 30 hours a week. Businesses that don’t provide health coverage must pay a $2,000-per-worker penalty, excluding the first 30 employees.
The mandate doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1, 2014, but to determine if employees work enough hours on average to receive benefits, employers must track their schedules for three to 12 months prior to 2014 — meaning many are restructuring payrolls now or will do so early next year, USA Today said.
About a quarter of businesses surveyed by consulting firm Mercer do not provide health coverage to employees who work at least 30 hours a week. Half of them plan to make changes so fewer employees work that many hours, USA today said.
Many companies with 40 to 45 workers are holding off adding employees so that they don’t pass the 50-employee threshold, Christine Ippolito, principal at Compass Workforce Solutions, a human resource consulting firm in Melville, N.Y., told USA Today.
And a recent survey by the International Franchise Association shows that 31 percent of franchisees plan to trim staff to land under the 50-employee threshold, the paper reported.
Information from Atlanta Business Chronicle
