Employers Not Talking to Part-Timers About ACA

According to a survey by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated, most part-time workers have heard of the ACA: 71% said they are familiar with the changes associated with it; 21% said they have not heard anything about it; and 7% said they have heard the name but are not at all familiar with the changes associated with it. Information about the ACA is coming from a variety of sources: the news media (61%), friends and family (38% each) and social media (36%) were the most cited sources. However, only 8% said they heard about the ACA from their employer.   

When asked how they felt about the changes associated with the ACA, 27% said “confused”, 25% said “hopeful” and 22% said “angry.” When asked if they thought their health care would cost more or less, 45% think it will cost more; 30% are not sure; 17% said it would not be impacted; and 9% think it will cost less.    

Under the ACA, employers must offer health insurance to employees who work 30 hours or more, but employers with seasonal, temporary or part-time workers may find challenges in tracking this (see “Employers With Part-Time Workers Face Challenges Under PPACA”).  

Joyce Maroney, director of The Workforce Institute, Kronos Incorporated, said: "Organizations have a lot of work to do to get ready for complying with the Affordable Care Act in January 2014. Our survey found that 44% of part-time workers do not use an automated system to capture their time, and 64% report their part-time employers don't use an automated scheduling solution. This means that a lot of folks are doing this work manually, and they'll have a hard time complying with the look-back and reporting requirements of the legislation. Perhaps more troubling, 36% of workers say that the hours they work are different from the hours they are scheduled to work, which could present a liability issue for employers. The time to start putting a strategy for compliance in place is now."