Restaurant Shift: Sorry, Just Part-Time

レストランの変化：すみませんが、パートタイムだけです
July 14, 2013, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Affordable Care Actは、この国の労働力をパートタイムに変えようとしている。
Ken Adams氏は、ミシガンのサブウェイ10店舗で、5〜6月、25人のパートタイム労働者を新たに雇い、一方で何人かの従業員の労働時間を削減し、店を去った労働者をパートタイム労働者で置き換えた。

他の産業よりも、娯楽業や接客業はより多くの労働者を雇用している。しかし、その多くがパートタイム労働者だ。

Affordable Care Actは、50人以上のフルタイムに相当する労働者を雇う雇用主は、週に30時間以上働く従業員に、彼らにとって入手可能な保険を提供することを要求している。この義務を果たさなければ罰金を支払わなければならない。

"I'd be surprised if the Affordable Care Act didn't have something to do with the pickup in part-time hiring", said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at
Capital Economics. "Companies don't want to pay for health care unnece-
ssarily if they can avoid it, so they'll try to avoid it." However, he said "the effects will be harder to discern in the data."

Mindful of health insurance, CKE, which owns the Carl's Jr. chain, last year
began hiring part-timers to replace full-time staffers who left.
For the entire U.S. workforce, employers have added far more part-time
employees in 2013—averaging 93,000 a month, seasonally adjusted—than
full-time workers, which have averaged 22,000. Last year the reverse was
true, with employers adding 31,000 part-time workers monthly, compared
with 171,000 full-time ones.

The Affordable Care Act requires employers with 50 or more full-time equi-
valent workers to offer affordable insurance to employees working 30 or
more hours a week or face fines. Some companies have said the requirement could increase their costs significantly, although others have played down
the potential hit.