In a previous post, New Numbers For Small Business, we outlined the implications of the new Obamacare law to small businesses. This law will require businesses with at least 50 employees to provide healthcare coverage to employees who work on average 30 hours a week. The mandate was to be effective January 2014. As an update to that post, the Obama administration has postponed the start date of this mandate until January 2015. This one-year delay gives small business owners extra time to prepare. For the same reasons outlined in our earlier post, businesses should take advantage of this reprieve.
An article in USA Today indicates that the economy felt the impact of the anticipated 2014 change. While there was job growth, much of the increase has been with part time jobs. This makes sense as employers want to avoid paying for health insurance.
Since March, 791,000 part-time jobs have been added, while the increase in full-time jobs has been only 187,000.
The majority of the new jobs in July came from 4 low wage industries: retail, restaurants, home healthcare and staffing firms. These sectors accounted for 60% of the growth.
We expect that the trend towards more part-time workers will continue as small businesses adapt to pending changes in the healthcare law. Small businesses will need to be diligent in tracking hours worked by their part-time employees, especially their remote workers in order to keep their hours under 30 a week. Since handwritten time cards can be easily fudged, it’s imperative now more than ever that small businesses transition to technology for their timekeeping methods.
Obamacare is coming. The effect on your small business can be mitigated if you make the most of its postponement.
We can help. It’s about time. Let’s get started.