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Institute for Workplace Studies-----------------Professor Samuel B. Bacharach

School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies

Cornell University

16 East 34th Street, 4th floor--------------------Stuart Basefsky

New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau

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Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)

 

EBRI NOTES, vol. 35, no. 5

TRENDS IN HEALTH COVERAGE FOR PART-TIME WORKERS, 1999-2012 [22 May 2014]

http://www.ebri.org/publications/notes/index.cfm?fa=notesDisp&content_id=5395

or

http://www.ebri.org/pdf/notespdf/EBRI_Notes_05_May-14_PrtTime.pdf

[full-text, 10 pages]

 

Press Release 22 May 2014

Trends in Health Coverage for Part-time Workers

http://www.ebri.org/pdf/PR1078.Prt-time.22May14.pdf

 

 

[excerpts]

...

EBRI’s new analysis shows that the recent recession had already resulted in an increased use of part-time

workers before PPACA was enacted: Between 2006 and 2010, the percentage of workers employed fewer

than 30 hours per week increased from 11.9 percent to 14.1 percent, and the percentage of workers

employed 30–39 hours per week increased from 11.4 percent to 13.2 percent. This may be due to the drop

in the unemployment rate, which fell from 9.9 percent in March 2010 (the month PPACA was signed into

law by President Obama) to 7.9 percent by the end of 2012. Since the end of 2012, the unemployment rate

has fallen to 6.6 percent, the report notes.

 

“Since the enactment of PPACA, the percentage of workers employed less than 40 hours per week has

actually declined slightly,” said Paul Fronstin, director of EBRI’s Health Education and Research

Program and author of the study. “At the same time, while both full-time and part-time workers have

experienced drops in coverage, part-time workers have been affected disproportionately.”

 

As the report notes, part-time workers have a far lower rate of health coverage than full-time workers.

Overall, there were 20 million workers employed under 30 hours per week and 18.8 million employed

30–39 hours per week in 2012. Among those employed fewer than 30 hours per week, 2.6 million

(12.8 percent) had employment-based coverage from their own job, and among those employed between

30–39 hours per week, 6.3 million (33.6 percent) had employment-based coverage from their own job.

 

In contrast, 60.5 percent of workers employed at least 40 hours per week had employment-based coverage

from their own job.

 

A key related issue is dependent health coverage for children or spouses of part-time workers, which has

been sharply declining. As the EBRI analysis points out, the likelihood that a worker employed fewer

than 30 hours per week had employment-based coverage as a dependent fell substantially between 2000

and 2009: In 2009, 35 percent of these workers had dependent coverage, down from 46.8 percent in 2000.

During this time, the percentage of workers employed 30–39 hours with coverage as a dependent fell

from 26 percent to 20.5 percent, while the percentage of workers employed 40 or more hours per week

with coverage as a dependent was mostly constant except for a slight drop from 2003 to 2004.

 

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