bake - February 2015 - 14

labor front

What is Full Time?
The House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation to
change the health care law's deﬁnition of "full time" from 30
hours to 40 hours a week. It's the third time in less than a year
that the Save American Workers Act, co-sponsored by Rep.
Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) has passed the
House. Now, the focus shifts to the Senate, where the bipartisan Forty Hours is Full Time Act was introduced in January
by Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.),

in the

LIsa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

industry.
Under

The More Time for Full Time initiative, which represents

the health

hundreds of thousands of employers and tens of millions of

care law, busi-

employees, sent a letter to the Senate in support of S. 30, the

nesses with 100 or

"40 Hours is Full Time Act of 2015," which moves to restore

more full-time-equiv-

the deﬁnition of a full-time workweek to the traditional stan-

alent employees-generally

dard of 40 hours under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

deﬁned as those who average at
least 30 hours per week-are required to offer health

In their letter, the initiative-which includes the National

care beneﬁts to those employees and their dependents

Restaurant Association, the International Franchise Association,

or face penalties in 2015. The requirement will expand

the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the National Retail

next year to include businesses with 50 to 99 full-time-

Federation, the US Chamber of Commerce, the American Rental

equivalent employees.

Association, the Asian American Hotel Owners Association,
the National Association of Convenience Stores, the National

"We have long supported this bipartisan effort to set the

Grocers Association, National Association of Theatre Owners,

deﬁnition of full-time under the ACA to 40-hours per week,

and the Society for Human Resource Management-highlighted

reﬂecting more traditional workforce patterns - an issue

the negative impact the 30-hour work week deﬁnition in the

critical to our industry," says NRA CEO Dawn Sweeney. "Now

ACA has on employees and employers.

that the House has done its part, we thank Sens. Collins and
Donnelly for introducing the 40 Hours is Full Time Act and

"Many Americans are drawn to part-time jobs with ﬂexible

urge the Senate to come together and move this critical legis-

hours to suit their personal needs. Further, employers with

lation forward for the good of restaurants and the business

variable-hour workforces and ﬂexible scheduling have been

community at large."

appealing and critical for students, single parents, and other
individuals struggling to balance various obligations and

Sweeney and NRA Chairman Jack Crawford, along with NRA

commitments. This critical ﬂexibility will be lost if employers

advocacy staff, met with several members of the House and

are forced to abandon current practices in order to avoid

Senate in the days leading up to the House vote to build support

signiﬁcant ﬁnancial penalties."

for the legislation. Crawford spoke at a press conference alongside Collins and Donnelly in support of the Senate bill.

Changing the health care law's full-time deﬁnition has been
a leading advocacy priority for the National Restaurant

As a leader of the More Time for Full Time initiative, the NRA

Association since the law was passed in 2010. The NRA is

joined more than 300 other organizations in sending letters

concerned a 30-hour deﬁnition of full-time would lead to

to the House and Senate in support of changing the full time

more rigid scheduling practices in the industry at the expense

deﬁnition. Passing the bill in the Senate is expected to be more

of the ﬂexibility that attracts millions of employees to work

challenging, as 60 votes are required to bring it to a vote.

14 < FEB 2015 | bakemag.com
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bake - February 2015

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