HEB
Hello I would like to keep my name anonymous due to certain risks. I live in Texas but specifically work for HEB one of the largest grocery chains in Texas. Ive been working here for about a year. Everything has been great these past couple of months I would get at least 34 hours a week which was perfect since the only reason I got the job was to be able to pay for college as well as help my mother. Everything was running smoothly until about 2 months ago I noticed we hired a lot of more partners which did not bother me at all since I knew how excited they must be feeling just as how I was my first day, my hours where somewhat cut but not a huge difference. Soon after I started noticing how more and more partners where being hired. I didn’t think much of it maybe business was going up and they needed more help. It was until about a month ago when I looked at my schedule and saw I had only been scheduled 26 hours. When I asked everyone else if there hours had been cut and how many where they getting they told me around the same number nobody had anything more than 30. When me and other group of employees asked the manager she responded with “where trying to make everyones hours equal since so many new partners where hired”. I settled with that answer and wasn’t until today someone had mention to take a look at the ObamaCare Employer Mandate. Thats when all the dots started to connect. I will now have to search for a second job due to this because I’m sure this will continue to keep on getting worser and my hours well they will go lower, and I frankly can’t afford that. My reason for this is to show how you will be doing more damage than good to people who didn’t need government aid before but might need it now. How many students are trying to get rid of their student loans working 38 hours a week in a place that pays them a reasonable amount for someone with no experience will have to find other places to work or worse get drowned in debt.
ObamaCareFacts.com
Thank you for writing. One of the less favorable side effects of the “employer mandate” ( the requirement for larger businesses to ensure full-time employees) is employers choosing to skirt around the mandate by keeping folks at part-time status by keeping hours in the 27-ish hour a week range. Last we checked the ACA defined full-time an average of 30 hours a week http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-12-58.pdf. Keeping an employee at 30 hours is dangerous as one or two extra shifts can mean a technical full-time status! So the hour cut probably came after the employer got a better understanding of the law. Given this,all things considered, you may not see your hours drop further. Rather, you are likely to see your hours float around 27 hours a week for the foreseeable future. Every company is different, so we can only speak generally, but perhaps they are keeping new hires at part-time status. So there is the more optimistic hope that sticking with it could actually lead to full-time in the future.