Obamacare Helps To Bring In More Full-Time Workers
Posted by Michelle Moquin on September 16th, 2013
Good morning!
I HOPE everyone had a wonderful weekend!
LeTa0: You’ve been chiming in quite frequently lately. I think you have reached “regular” status. :) I find your comments right on and well said. Anyway, I’ve been staying abreast on Obamacare and the conservative right’s constant continuation of knocking it down as if it is a “bad thing.” It feels like a battle sometime to repeatedly get the word out and provide writes to right the wrong writes and right. Got it?
Here is my attempt today. Another write from Think Progress:
Employers Actually Plan To Hire More Full-Time Workers As Obamacare Rolls Out
BY IGOR VOLSKY ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2013 AT 4:44 PM
A new survey of chief financial officers finds that American companies expect to increase the number of full-time employees by 1.8 percent over the next 12 months as key parts of the Affordable Care Act go into effect, undermining conservative critics who’ve argued that the health care law would hamper business growth and expansion.
“The expected two percent growth in employment is solid, given the context of long-run shifts away from full-time employees largely because of concerns about health care reform and economic uncertainty,” John Graham, Duke Fuqua School of Business finance professor and director of the survey, said. The poll, conducted by Duke University/CFO Magazine, surveyed CFOs at 530 U.S. companies.
The results echo broader indicators showing that companies are hiring more workers.
Payroll figures released last month, for instance, found that job creation at small companies has almost doubled in the last six months, “reaching 82,000 jobs at firms with 49 or fewer employees in July, according to payroll processor ADP.” Small businesses are borrowing more, displaying greater confidence, and are seeing higher “sales of new franchises.”
Though some businesses are claiming that they are hiring more part-time workers to avoid the Affordable Care Act’s employer responsibility requirements, which apply to companies with more than 50 full-time employees, that incentive is limited and research from Moody’s economist Marisa DiNatale indicates that most industries “are actually using fewer part-timers than last year.” The growth in part-time employment, which has been taking place long before the health care law, is rooted in “industries such as restaurants and hospitality that use as much as twice as many part-timers as other companies,” DiNatale concluded.
Some employers in the Duke University survey did cite the health care law as a impediment to growth, though concerns about economic uncertainty, the belief that the stock market is overvalued and will “experience a downward correction,” and rising interest rates were also mentioned.
*****
Readers: As is said so often by many of you, as well as myself, the rabid racists will do anything to bring down Obama…and they will only believe what they want to believe. But as LeTa0 said, “The republicans know that once the people see the benefits of ObamaCare they will be tagged for the liars they are. Even their choir will find it difficult to continue with their negative talking points.” And until then…we can count on them to continue to lie that Obamacare is not what it is. Ohh…I can’t wait till the benefits really start rolling out. No doubt the rabid racists will be the first to run and take advantage.
Thoughts? Blog me.
Peace & love…
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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September 16th, 2013 at 8:41 am
Ym:
I miss you. I hope you are safe and enjoying yourself. Please call me when you can. I love you so much.
Yw
September 16th, 2013 at 12:14 pm
Hi Michelle, I’m still around.
Connie, what a stupid comment.
/SB
September 16th, 2013 at 9:32 pm
Mischa, this is one of their favorite talking points – less FT jobs, blah blah i’maracistmofo blah
/SB, I was drinking water when I read your comment, it ALMOST exited out of my nose when I laughed, I thought Connie’s comment was just one of those things that make me tilt my head a bit and think: hmmmmm?! – but nope, you just called it out.
Luv, Zen Lill
September 17th, 2013 at 7:47 am
I laughed also. It is difficult enough being gay here in Japan. One hardly needs to here that from heteros.
I am happy to hear from you SocialButterfly. I hope you don’t mind I adopted your title. Most of our internet boards and forums allow anonymous postings hence there is a lot of bullying and harassing against gays here.
I used to use the standard 名無しさん, which means Mr./Ms. But now, I proudly use the title 社交家, Social Butterfly. Thanks for being a great role model.
When I read your stuff I go away saying: wah kadie mas stah – I understand.
Kaede
September 17th, 2013 at 7:53 am
Ditto Zen Lill
September 17th, 2013 at 7:54 am
You people (gays) ever think about what God thinks of your behavior? Zen Lill you shouldn’t encourage them.
September 17th, 2013 at 8:31 am
Employers say part-timers offer them flexibility. If the economy picks up, they can quickly offer full-time work. If orders dry up, they know costs are under control. This can all become a less-than-virtuous cycle as new employees, who are mainly in lower wage businesses such as retail and food services, do not have the disposable income to drive demand for goods and services.
“Us and other people are hiring part-time because we don’t know what the costs are going to be to hire full-time,” said Steven Raz. “They have put some of the full-time positions on hold and are hiring part-time employees so they won’t have to pay out the benefits,” said Client Staffing Solutions’ Darin Hovendick. “There is so much uncertainty. It’s really tough to design a budget when you don’t know the final cost involved.” No risk no gain…
So without the political BS, a valid business objective is revealed. With US Congress in an agenda deadlock and unable to counter German modernization and match German infrastructure, the T’Rxpublican plan to sabotage the US government is in full swing. Progressive people are protesting in larger numbers than ever before and targeting RED State legislated Oligarchical morality.
Protests are expanding to all North Carolina districts as the State Legislators are on ‘full pay and benefits’ in recess until May. North Carolina unemployment is third worst in the Nation since T’Rxpublican control of the state. This is what Democracy looks like, as united we will prevail.
September 17th, 2013 at 8:32 am
Single payer would solve this problem. Experts say that hiring is held back, or perhaps worse, hours are trucated so that companies can avoid providing what they should provide under the current system: benefits to their employees, who make them successful, and define their value.
This has been spun absolutely the wrong way. The real villans are companies who cut hours back *just enough* to avoid paying benefits, then cry to whomever will listen about how they just can’t manage to pin costs down 4 years down the road out to the 0.00x decimal place. It is entirely fascinating how commonplace it is to ahere to ideas of American innovation, ingenuity, the ability to overcome obstacles, and success in business, yet none of these notions are applied to how a company might deal with this modest business uncertainty.
Instead, it is treated as if this is a piece of Kryptonite for US busiensses. “If only we didn’t have this one.single.uncertainty, then we’d be able to plan!”
Consider the counterfactual for one moment: If the ACA were not going into effect in the near future, would American businesses be hiring a meaningfully larger number of people for fulltime, benefits-eligible, ‘wellpaid’ (whatever that means) positions, in addition to not cutting hours for current employees under the guise of ‘keeping costs in line with profit expectations?’
If your gut reaction is ‘yes,’ you need a stomach transplant. Yours is bad.
Yet, nobody seems to consider this. We are so good at looking at the counterfactual in so many other situations, and strategizing based upon one or several alternate scenarios, seemingly everywhere but here. I think it is because, despite what some people say, those in power simply have too much to gain by continuing to treat healthcare as a luxury rather than a necessity. There were many points in history where ‘a liberal congree’ could have steamrolled this sorta thing through, with less vitriol than we saw a few years ago. But it never happened. Now that is has, what is a very large change to our way of doing things, we all (businesses, people, etc) should expect this is going to be disruptive. Yet we don’t. We assume it’s all going to be the same, and become very irate when we are confronted with the fact that it’s not.
And to be clear, I did vote for Obama, but he has gone on to basically make me regret that since about January 2009. So this is not some ‘I’m a democrat and anything Obama does is beyond reproach and you guys just don’t get how great he and how awesome his ideas are’ thing. I was inspired, like many, and have been disappointed basically ever since.
I have studied govt, professionally and academically, a lot, and know that two of the best things any govt can spend its money on are making its citizens smarter, and healthier. This translates into a signficantly more productive workforce, and wealthier nation for all, without having to redistribute massive amounts of money from the rich to the poor to prop them up. Every other wealthy nation on earth seems to have figured this out.
September 17th, 2013 at 8:41 am
Adam, your problem is like others who expect the man to walk on water is that the country relaxed and allowed the republicans to take over the House. What can Obama do when his every effort to put this country back to work is thwarted by the BAPF republicans.
I agree with person who said we need to STAY FOCUSED and get out to the polls in 2014 and kick these assholes out. If we don’t all your dissatisfaction with Obama will come to pass because those republicans don’t want this country to work under a black man.
September 17th, 2013 at 8:42 am
Looks Like Adam is the only poster that has it figured out so far. A smarter and healthier populace makes EVERYONE prosper, even these companies only concerned about the bottom line.
If businesses/companies are not hiring full-time because of the 50 employee/30 hour work week thing, simple solution make them provide health insurance for ANY employee for ANY size business, problem solved. If they are only going to be concerned about the bottom line then force them to do what is right.
As an example, the company I work for, about 80 employees right now, is concerned about the bottom line, but it not the only concern. The owner has a philsophy of taking care of her workers and strives to provide a more ‘humanistic’ type of work environment. EVERY employee has health insurance, we could hire part-time but we do not. And when there are slow-downs we try to keep as many on staff as possible, e.g. had recent lull and orders and the production staff went on shared work so they could retain their benefits. Could have easily laid people off and maybe saved a buck or two, but that was not the choice made. Maybe because it is a woman-owned company so their is some empathy there.
If more companies/businesses worked like that the overall effect would be a much happier/healhtier populace and a more robust economy. But no it all about the almight dollar and making as much as you can off the back of the low-paid part time worker. Maybe what this country needs is a comeback of an organized labor force, aka unions. It is not coincedence that the rise in income inequality, one of the major fundamental issues of the economy, has been accompained by a decline in union membership.
September 17th, 2013 at 8:43 am
“…two of the best things any govt can spend its money on are making its citizens smarter, and healthier.”
Trouble is, govt. spending does not equal human motivation. If it did, places like Washington, D.C. and Chicago would have the healthiest, smartest students in the world.
September 17th, 2013 at 8:45 am
I would like to unify with Adam and Uther, but I object to Business as the problem. Inteleaving valid business strategy with government ‘by of for the people’ is an aggregarious threat to Democracy.
Both religion and Business needs to be separate from Democratic government of the people, both of those entities have vertical control structures faviorable only to oligarthic rule.
For business I applaud, for Religion, that movement to oligarthic rule, I do not.
September 17th, 2013 at 8:47 am
Adam:
“…companies can avoid providing what they should provide under the current system: benefits to their employees, who make them successful, and define their value.” If it were, in fact, employees who make businesses successful, what is wrong with J.C. Penny, Barnes & Noble or Dell?
Why don’t “our” governmental UNION “employees” (bureaucrats) make the U.S. Government “successful” and “valuable”. Why don’t our teacher UNIONS make our schools “successful” and “valuable”?
The answer is simple. If there is a path to success, it is understanding what one’s “business” is, and providing it’s “product” to customers, consumers or taxpayers reliably, efficiently and at reasonable cost. The inspiration, planning, perspiration, “push”, evaluation, tweaking, monitoring and long term sustainability of any endeavor is the responsibility of MANAGEMENT. Good management is Walmart’s not-so “secret” weapon. It is the “fatal flaw” in our schools and our government.
It is for our schools to provide the raw material for a more productive work force, a task at which failure is endemic. Our society is even failing to produce young people that our military will accept for service. Many are too fat, have serious drug issues or a criminal record, or are just plain incompetent in terms of showing up and following instructions.
Please list the source of the money “other wealthy nations” spend “on are making its citizens smarter, and healthier”. Tell us how such spending raises IQ. Please identify these countries that you believe “do better” than the United States in extending functional life and reveal what they spend, per capita, for comparison.
“Study” is not a pastime that reliably conveys wisdom or every genius graduating college would immediately be productive, self supporting and upwardly mobile. It has been said that the primary difference between a recent college graduate and a can of Alpo (dog food) is that the Alpo has “content”.
September 17th, 2013 at 8:48 am
Adam and Uther;
The problem with this argument is that you are simply assuming that the government is going to do a good job of running healthcare. This is the same government that can’t do a single thing as efficiently and effectively as private industry can.
We already have several examples of government run healthcare, and last I heard no one was singing praises about VA hospitals and both medicare and medicade are woefully in debt.
How can we honestly expect to dump what amounts to about 18% of our GDP on the government (and thus on taxpayers) and expect it to work out just fine?
September 17th, 2013 at 8:48 am
I’m not saying I’m a proponent of Obama care, however, I will say that large global companies especially in the tech industry started using part-time help before the introduction of Obama care to help avoid legacy costs.
September 17th, 2013 at 8:49 am
This is what happens when you have one party in control of government. They force through legislation such as Obamacare which is a complete diaster. It is a proven job killer. Thank God the Teaparty came along and put a stop to this nonsense. No telling how much worse things would be if the Dems had complete control of the govenment again.
September 17th, 2013 at 8:56 am
LLoyd actually this what happens when the people go to sleep and allow a corrupt republican party to take over a branch of government. They can and in this case have stopped the country from progressing.
It is a disaster having the teaparty idiots at the helm of the House. You are the typical clown that believes their bullshit.
September 17th, 2013 at 8:59 am
“A study by financial analysis firm Sageworks found that profit per employee at privately held companies jumped to more than $18,000 in 2012 from about $14,000 in 2009.”
Translation:
While exploiting a slave labor pool here and abroad, the aristocracy was able to grow it’s margins at the expense of the working class. This while the republicans and their owners throw a trillion dollars a year at the elite and bankers who get first run on funny money and destroy what’s left of the American dollar.
The grand illusion is almost over. Soon we shall see just how long Obama can fight those criminals. If we don’t get to the polls in significant numbers to kick out this bunch of thieves and sycophants all will be lost.
September 17th, 2013 at 9:01 am
Mikey, Medicare adminstrative costs are less then half that of the best run privately run private insurance comapnies, so yes the government is more efficient and effective then private companies.
This whole myth that the government is in-efficient and wasteful is just that, a myth. Of course you hear about the out lying events, like the $1000 hammers, because of transperancy, you do not think their is waste and in-efficencies in private companies? Of course there is but you do not hear of it because no transperancy.
Personally I would rather my health insurance money go to paying for medical services instead of some executives pocket or profit. I am a BIG believer in Capitalism, just not when it comes to life or death decisions about ‘managing’ someone’s care just so someone can make a profit. Should doctors, nurses and the such be paid well, of course, but should health insurance companies make money on rationing care, of course not.
September 17th, 2013 at 9:04 am
Mikey, governments are perfectly capable of running health services. The problems you point out with the VA and Medicare is not how these organizations are managed, but how they are funded and that is a function of Congress.
The simple fact Congress has kicked the funding problem down the road for decades and it is starting to catch up with them. Everyone has known we have a an aging populations with fewer worker supporting the systems. In fact one of the positive reasons to pass the immigration bill is to pull in more younger tax paying legal workers into the system. In 10-years there will be more people 65 than 18.
Other industrial countries do just fine with single-payer health care and limited private sector insurance involvement providing better health care at a lower cost than we have here in the US.
I don’t think anyone can really say private industry in health care is anywhere close to being efficient and effective, its not.
September 17th, 2013 at 9:06 am
Here is something you can do: don’t sign up for ObamaCare if you don’t already have coverage. Wait until you have a serious health problem, then sign up. As long as your benefits exceed the premiums, keep paying them. When that reverses, drop ObamaCare like a rotten tomato.
Let liberals who worship Obama sign up early and subsidize others, although I strongly suspect that many liberals will urge everyone to sign up while they do not. They are not used to paying for anything and buying ObamaCare would be a lot to even ask of them.
Pay the nigger his fine, but note that his recent decree included a provision that, for 2014, insurance companies do have to report their customer base to the IRS. So you can put on your tax return that you have an ObamaCare policy and they have no way of knowing whether you do or not. So no fine for 2014!