Union: Obamacare will slash wages by up to $5 an hour
Unite Here, representing more than 300,000 low-wage workers, has released a report which claims that Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act as it is more officially known, may actually increase income inequality rather than reduce it. If employers shift low-wage workers from employer-provided healthcare insurance to the state healthcare exchanges, then workers could end up paying upwards of the equivalent of $5 per hour for similar healthcare coverage. While some workers would qualify for subsidies and employer contributions, the report seems to be assessing the healthcare situation not only of workers who work full-time and are shifted onto healthcare exchanges, but also of workers who will be shifted to part-time status or have their hours cut so that their employer need not offer healthcare insurance at all. The head of Unite Here, Donald Taylor, also sent a letter to members of congress demanding changes to the healthcare law, but not going so far as to call for its repeal.
See "Union: Obamacare will slash wages by up to $5 an hour", Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner, March 9, 2014