U.S. Senator John Thune, along with Senators Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), introduced legislation to restore the definition of “full-time” work under ObamaCare to 40 hours a week and exempt more small businesses from the employer mandate.
The Small Business Fairness in Health Care Act (S. 2205) would repeal the “full-time equivalents” classification from the 30 hours per week standard imposed by ObamaCare and replace it with a 40 hour per week standard. The bill would also protect companies that have traditionally been counted as small businesses by expanding the scope of the exception in the ObamaCare employer mandate to account for any small business that is defined as a “small business concern” under the Small Business Act.
“The last thing we should be doing in an already stagnant Obama economy is taking money out of the pockets of hard-working families and making it harder and more expensive for business to create jobs,” said Thune. “Yet that is precisely what the 30 hour work week and narrow classification of small business has done. Rather than insisting upon implementing provisions of ObamaCare that continue to result in these negative unintended consequences, Congress should be promoting policies to help create good-paying jobs by reining in these burdensome regulations—starting with the 30 hour work week.”
Participation in the labor force is at the lowest point since Jimmy Carter occupied the White House. More than 10 million Americans are currently unemployed and of those, more than 3.7 million have been unemployed for six months or longer. On February 4th, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released a report on ObamaCare. The report found that ObamaCare will result in the equivalent of 2.5 million fewer workers over the next 10 years. Study after study show that ObamaCare’s regulations and policies are increasing costs and forcing businesses to either lay off workers or delay hiring new workers.