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Has the Affordable Care Act increased part-time employment?

Author

Listed:
  • Aparna Mathur
  • Sita Nataraj Slavov
  • Michael R. Strain

Abstract

We examine the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on part-time employment. Because the ACA's employer health insurance mandate applies to individuals who work 30 or more hours per week, employers may try to avoid the mandate by cutting workers' hours below the 30-hour threshold in order to avoid having to provide them with health insurance. Although the employer mandate only went into effect in 2015, many observers have argued that forward-looking employers began to shift towards a part-time workforce well in advance of the mandate. To test this hypothesis, we examine relative shifts across two categories of part-time workers (25-29 hours and 31-35 hours). We find some evidence of a shift from the 31-35-hour category into the 25-29-hour category after the passage of ACA in March 2010. However, that shift is not more pronounced among low-wage workers or among workers in industries and occupations most likely to be affected by the mandate. Thus, there is little evidence that the ACA has caused the shift across hours categories, or led to an increase in part-time employment. However, the ACA could cause a shift towards part-time work in the future as the mandate takes effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Aparna Mathur & Sita Nataraj Slavov & Michael R. Strain, 2016. "Has the Affordable Care Act increased part-time employment?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 222-225, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:23:y:2016:i:3:p:222-225
    DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2015.1066483
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    Cited by:

    1. Pengju Zhang & Ling Zhu, 2021. "Does the ACA Medicaid Expansion Affect Hospitals’ Financial Performance?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 49(6), pages 779-814, November.
    2. William E. Even & David A. Macpherson, 2019. "The Affordable Care Act and the Growth of Involuntary Part-Time Employment," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(4), pages 955-980, August.
    3. Marcus Dillender & Carolyn J. Heinrich & Susan Houseman, 2022. "Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Part-Time Employment: Early Evidence," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(4), pages 1394-1423.
    4. Conor Lennon, 2019. "Employer‐Sponsored Health Insurance and the Gender Wage Gap: Evidence from the Employer Mandate," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(3), pages 742-765, January.
    5. repec:mrr:papers:wp341 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Conor Lennon, 2018. "Who pays for the medical costs of obesity? New evidence from the employer mandate," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(12), pages 2016-2029, December.
    7. Jeffrey Clemens & Drew McNichols & Joseph J. Sabia, 2020. "The Long-Run Effects of the Affordable Care Act: A Pre-Committed Research Design Over the COVID-19 Recession and Recovery," NBER Working Papers 27999, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Lennon, Conor, 2021. "Are the costs of employer-sponsored health insurance passed on to workers at the individual level?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).

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