Almost one in five large- and mid-sized U.S. companies plans to reduce the hours that part-time employees work in order to limit exposure to coverage mandates under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management.

Once employer mandates of the sweeping federal health reform laws begin going into effect in 2014, employers with at least 50 full-time workers (determined by ACA to be those working at least 30 hours per week) will be required to offer health benefit plans to 95% of qualifying employees or incur a $2,000 per employee tax penalty.

Two reports released by SHRM on the impending impact of the health care reform law indicate that 18% of companies with between 500 and 2,499 employees will reduce part-time schedules to less than 30 hours per week to mitigate costs related to the addition of new members to the plan. And approximately 19% of large firms with 2,500 to 24,999 employees plan to cut part-time employees’ hours.

On the other hand, the study found that smaller employers, those with fewer than 500 employees, were less likely to cut part-time employees’ hours. Just 5% of employers with fewer than 100 workers expect to reduce part-time hours.

via Employers may reduce part-timers’ hours as ACA approaches | Insurance & Financial Advisor I IFAwebnews.com.

Does anyone out there (besides me) believe company managements need to manage as if people mattered?

Many employers believe that one of the best ways to raise their profit margin is to cut labor costs. But companies like QuikTrip, the grocery-store chain Trader Joe’s, and Costco Wholesale are proving that the decision to offer low wages is a choice, not an economic necessity. All three are low-cost retailers, a sector that is traditionally known for relying on part-time, low-paid employees. Yet these companies have all found that the act of valuing workers can pay off in the form of increased sales and productivity.

 

“Retailers start with this philosophy of seeing employees as a cost to be minimized,” says Zeynep Ton of MIT’s Sloan School of Management. That can lead businesses into a vicious cycle. Underinvestment in workers can result in operational problems in stores, which decrease sales. And low sales often lead companies to slash labor costs even further. Middle-income jobs have declined recently as a share of total employment, as many employers have turned full-time jobs into part-time positions with no benefits and unpredictable schedules.

via The Trader Joe’s Lesson: How to Pay a Living Wage and Still Make Money in Retail – Sophie Quinton – The Atlantic.

Valuing people.  What a strange concept, eh?