Outlook for Workers is Worst in Decades, Thanks to Obama Betsy McCaughey PhD
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/outlook-for-workers-is-worst-in-decades-thanks-to-obama?f=puball
President Obama used his weekly Saturday radio address to mark the 131st anniversary of Labor Day. He swore his “highest priority” is to “reverse forces that have conspired – for decades – against American workers.” Yakkity-yak.
Don’t believe that demagoguery. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that workers – especially low-wage workers – are losing ground under Obama.
After 4-1/2 years of the Obama presidency, an unprecedented number of Americans have given up looking for work, wages are stagnating, low-wage earners are suffering most and the U.S. is fast becoming a nation of part-time workers.
- Payroll tax hike: American workers got clobbered on Day 1 of 2013, when the president engineered a “fiscal cliff” agreement with Congress that, among other things, boosted the Social Security payroll tax rate – the amount deducted from a worker’s paycheck – from 4.2% to 6.2%. A worker earning $30,000 a year immediately felt the pinch, with $50 a week less in take-home pay.
- Workforce participation: Worse, many Americans in their prime working years are no longer even looking for a job. Workforce participation – the percentage of Americans who have a job or are seeking one – plunged to a 34-year-low of 63.3% this spring. In a May 13 report, the Federal Reserve of San Francisco called the trend “unprecedented.”
As July employment data show, the jobs the economy is adding are low-quality, low-paying and almost all part-time.
- Part-time America: From Jan. 1 through July 31, 77% of jobs created were part-time. Fewer than one of four people hired got full-time work – the opposite of a normal economy.
In April, news about employers shifting to part-time hiring grew to a drumbeat. Many employers cited ObamaCare for the change.
The new health law requires employers with 50 or more full-time employees to provide health benefits or pay a fine. Adding a $5,000 health benefit is affordable when you’re hiring lawyers but not entry-level workers.
The mandate applies only to full-time workers, which, according to the Affordable Care Act, means 30 or more hours a week. So job seekers are increasingly being offered 29 hours or less.
All across the country municipal and county governments, community colleges and state governments are doing the same as the private sector, pushing workers below 30 hours to evade the health insurance mandate.
The president’s arbitrary (and unconstitutional) delay of the employer mandate from Jan. 1, 2014 to 2015 appears to have done nothing to alleviate the trend. The reason is that the number of full-time employees an employer has now will determine if the employer is subject to fines when the mandate takes effect.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and the author of “Beating Obamacare.” Her website is here: http://betsymccaughey.com/
Twitter: @Betsy McCaughey
Facebook: Betsy McCaughey
Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/outlook-for-workers-is-worst-in-decades-thanks-to-obama?f=puball#ixzz2e7RGXSbm
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