Employers like Trader Joe?s and Home Depot are moving to cease providing insurance for part-time workers. Other employers are redefining part-time to escape Obamacare mandates. One important change is that any employers with more than 50 employees must offer health insurance coverage to employees that work over 30 hours per week. This trend is accompanied by a similar tactic in which employers no longer offer a company-wide insurance plan, but instead pay up to a certain dollar amount for employees who find their insurance in the Healthcare Exchanges. Part-time workers who are finding their hours cut so that their employer will not be required to offer health insurance are finding in some cases that they will end up paying much more for the same coverage with less money in their budgets.
See "US employers slash worker hours to avoid Obamacare insurance mandate", Karen McVeigh, Guardian Unlimited (UK), September 30, 2013