Rep. Kelly Blasts Obamacare Employer Mandate at Ways & Means Hearing
WASHINGTON — Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) – a member of the House Way and Means Committee – spoke at yesterday’s full committee hearing on the economic impact of the employer mandate of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which defines “full-time employment” as 30 hours per week. Rep. Kelly is an original co-sponsor of H.R. 2575, the Save American Workers Act, which would repeal the 30-hour definition in order to protect hours and wages from being cut by restoring the traditional 40-hour definition.
Highlights of Rep. Kelly’s remarks:
“Barb Wilson works for the Arc of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. This is a phenomenal organization that assists people with developmental disabilities. Barbara is a part-time employee who used to work 30 to 35 hours a week. Now she was recently informed, [as were] her co-workers, that all part-time employees will be having their hours cut to around 20 hours a week because of the Affordable Care Act. Barb tells me that she was ‘shocked’ when she heard this news. Because of her hours being cut, she says she will no longer be able to afford the cost of living.”
“There’s also a lot of private companies that I’ve talked to, and I think the chilling effect of this [administration’s] current run is that these people say, ‘You can use our story, but you can’t use my name because I’m afraid of some type of retribution.’”
“I’ve got a guy— 92 of his 993 employees worked more than 30 hours a week. Now, all 92 of those employees have had their hours cut to less than 30 hours a week. On top of that, more than 30 employees have had access to their health insurance plans ended.”
“Now it’s not only affecting the private sector, but also the public sector. In our school district, where I come from, Butler Area School District has had to implement procedures to keep all of its part-time employees working less than 30 hours. The entire Lawrence County government has had to reduce all of its part-time employees to just 28 hours.”
“The purpose of this meeting today was to examine the impact of going from 40 hours to 30 hours and I think it’s absolutely ridiculous for anybody to say there is no impact. I am a small town, small businessman. We spend about $400,000 a year on health care. … [To witness Peter Anastos:] I don’t think people get the picture of your total cost of labor and what this [mandate] adds to your total cost of labor and how that affects your final product that you have to put out in the market and compete against every single person that does what you do. So when you talk about it, also talk about Social Security contributions, about your wage taxes, and about Medicaid contributions. It’s a lot more than people think.”
“Since we’ve cut the work week from 40 hours a week to 30 hours a week — that’s about a 25 percent reduction in the number of hours. So, using the president’s terminology, look – ‘it’s just arithmetic.’ So if I cut your hours by 25 percent, then I’m going to have to raise your wage by 25 percent. And I see this pivot [by President Obama] to the minimum wage now — it’s kind of funny how it kind of matches the 25 percent less hours [caused by the employer mandate], matched by a 25 percent increase in the minimum wage that the government wants to establish. I think that’s the Judas goat that’s making people think, ‘Okay, we’re going to raise your wage.’ I don’t believe that that’s the right approach to this.”
“This is not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue. This is an American worker issue. … It should never be a minimum wage that we try to get to; it should be a market wage where we allow all workers, with their skills and their ability, to make as much as they can.”
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