ObamaCare to hurt working poor by cutting their hours

Gee, who could have seen this coming?

Some low-wage employers are moving toward hiring part-time workers instead of full-time ones to mitigate the health-care overhaul’s requirement that large companies provide health insurance for full-time workers or pay a fee.

Several restaurants, hotels and retailers have started or are preparing to limit schedules of hourly workers to below 30 hours a week. That is the threshold at which large employers in 2014 would have to offer workers a minimum level of insurance or pay a penalty starting at $2,000 for each worker.

If I’ve got a restaurant and I have 30 employees working 40 hours a week, I’ll have to pay $60,000 in ObamaCare fines. Or I can just change the schedule and have 40 employees working part-time at 29.5 hours a week and I’m home free. National chains such as Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Yard House, etc.) are already doing the math.

What about just providing health insurance instead of paying the fines? Nope, the cost of ObamaCare with its new coverage mandates and complete failure to control costs would be much higher than paying the fine — and far too much to pay for many low-wage service positions in restaurants and retail.

It always comes back to the General Theory of Liberalism: leftists don’t understand them.