Young: White House Guidance Admin 30-Hour Provision Problems in Latest Delay

Press Release

When the White House unilaterally delayed the employer mandate for a second time on Monday, they also publicly admitted for the first time problems created by the 30-hour definition of full-time employment in documents produced by the Treasury Department.

In addition to delaying the full employer mandate until 2016 for businesses with 50-99 full-time employees, the administration also announced that businesses with 100 or more full-time employees will only be required to offer coverage to 70% (as opposed to the health care law's requirement of 95%) of those employees for 2015. A "Fact Sheet" memo issued along with the regulations notes (emphasis ours),

To avoid a payment for failing to offer health coverage, employers need to offer coverage to 70 percent of their full-time employees in 2015 and 95 percent in 2016 and beyond, helping employers that, for example, may offer coverage to employees with 35 or more hours, but not yet to that fraction of their employees who work 30 to 34 hours.

Rep. Todd Young (R-IN9), author of the bill (H.R. 2575, the Save American Workers Act) that would repeal the 30-hour definition of full-time employment and replace it with the traditional 40-hour work week, released the following statement:

"The guidance offered in this Treasury memo makes it clear that the White House realizes the problems created by this 30-hours-is-full-time provision. As the Ways and Means Committee heard in testimony two weeks ago, as many as 2.6 million hourly workers across the country are at risk for reduced hours and wages because of this provision. But the White House solution only delays the pain, it does not solve the problem. Over 200 members of the House--including a growing number of Democrats--understand that, which is why they have co-sponsored my Save American Workers Act to address this problem once and for all."--Rep. Todd Young (R-IN9)

The Treasury Department Fact Sheet is attached for background information. On Monday, the same day as the administration's delay announcement, Reps. Dan Lipinski, Jim Matheson, Collin Peterson, and Kurt Schrader became the first Democratic co-sponsors of Young's bill. More information about that bill can be found at http://toddyoung.house.gov/save-american-workers.

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