Congressman Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, joined a bipartisan majority of his House colleagues today in passing legislation that seeks to protect the nation’s most-vulnerable workers by restoring the federal definition of “full-time” work to 40 hours per week. The legislation – H.R. 2575, the Save American Workers (SAW) Act of 2014 – would repeal a provision of the health care law that changes the definition of “full-time” employment to 30 hours per week.  The provision relates to the law’s “employer mandate,” which requires many employers to provide approved coverage to full-time employees or face a significant fine. As a result, employers are incentivized to reduce part-time employee hours (e.g., those working between 30 and 36 hours per week) to fewer than 30 hours to avoid penalty under the law.

“The first rule of health care is to do no harm. The 30-hour rule is yet another example of how the President’s health law is making it harder for families to make ends meet and more costly for small businesses to hire and expand their operation,” said Upton. “Speaking with employers back home, this provision is having a real and devastating impact on how folks in Southwest Michigan are doing business. The 30-hour rule and employer mandates means fewer work hours, less take-home pay, and fewer new hires.”

A recent study by the Hoover Institution found that 2.6 million Americans making under $30,000 a year are most at risk of seeing their wages and hours reduced as a result of the 30-hour rule.