House Approves Legislation Marking 40 Hours as 'Full Time' for PPACA Purposes

NBCH thanks the American Benefits Council for the information provided in this post.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a measure on January 8 that would establish 40 hours as the benchmark for "full time" work under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The 252-172 vote included 12 Democrats.

The Save American Workers Act (H.R. 30), introduced by House Ways and Means Committee member Todd C. Young (R-IN), would replace the number 30 (hours per week) with the number 40 (hours per week) for purposes of identifying full-time employees and satisfying the PPACA employer mandate under Internal Revenue Code Section 4980H. H.R. 30 would also modify the calculation of full-time equivalent workers by requiring employers to divide the aggregate number of hours of service of employees who are not full-time employees by 174 rather than 120.

President Obama has issued a Statement of Administration Policy asserting that he would veto H.R. 30 if it reached his desk, noting that the measure would increase the federal budget deficit, reduce the number of people receiving employer-based health insurance coverage and increase the number of individuals who are uninsured. The latest Congressional Budget Office budget score estimates that H.R. 30 would increase the deficit by $53.2 billion over the next ten years. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stated in a January 8 news conference that the measure would add half a million people to the ranks of the uninsured.

Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Donnelly (D-IN) have introduced a companion bill in the U.S. Senate, the Forty Hours is Full Time Act (S. 30), but legislative text remains unavailable at this time.