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If the Supreme Court strikes down President Barack Obama's health care law, employers and insurance companies—not the government—will be the main drivers of change over the next decade and maybe even longer. They'll borrow some ideas from Obamacare, and push harder to cut costs. Business can't and won't take care of America's 50 million uninsured, but for the majority with coverage, here's what experts say to expect:

A new Gallup poll shows ObamaCare is working just as planned: kill the private health insurance industry in order to implement a single-payer government system. The number of people insured through employer provided health insurance continues to decline. The percentage of American adults who get their health insurance from an employer continues to decline, falling to 44.5% in the third quarter of this year. This percentage has been steadily declining since Gallup and Healthways started tracking Americans' health insurance sources in 2008. At least 45% of Americans got their health insurance from an employer in every month in 2010, compared...

Employees may not realize it, but they are getting more expensive. It isn't that their paychecks have suddenly started bulging. It's that other employment costs—like health and retirement benefits—continue to rise. Benefit costs in the private sector were up 4% year-on-year in the second quarter, more than double the 1.7% increase in wages and salaries. On Friday, the Labor Department's employment-cost index for the third quarter is likely to show this trend continuing. The trouble is, this means employers are paying more for workers without actually paying their workers more. Higher benefit costs eat into profits without directly raising a...

Unions’ abilities to organize and carry out their political objectives are hampered by the fact that current labor laws protect their employees from the unions’ bosses’ “abuses.” That is, as employers of persons, unions are subject to the same rules that apply to other employers. Obama’s Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, is drafting new regulations that would exempt unions from the standards applied to other employers. “These regulations hem-in the latitude of management by restricting what they can do when dealing with their employees,” Solis said. “While these regulations are necessary to protect workers from employer abuses, they are inappropriate...

What will happen with Americans' health insurance in 2014 remains guesswork, but this much is clear: A significant number of employers will at least think about dropping coverage. That point was driven home again Wednesday with the release of another survey on how companies plan to address the sweeping changes generated by the Affordable Care Act of 2010. The latest results come from professional services firm Towers Watson, which said 9% of the midsize and large companies it recently polled plan to drop employer-sponsored health insurance after the Affordable Care Act takes effect in 2014. Other research has predicted that...

Any day now, the U.S. Department of Labor, under former Big Labor treasurer and now Obama’s current Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, intends to announce a new definition for the term “Employer” that will protect her union boss friends. When the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) passed, Congress defined the term “Employer” very broadly as “any employer or any group or association of employers engaged in an industry affecting commerce … an employer within the meaning of any law of the United States relating to the employment of any employees.”

“How can the government help me?” This seems to be a growing sentiment among the American middle class. “The land of opportunity” is quickly becoming the “nation of the needy.” Here’s a question I received from a reader just last week: “I am not happy with how things are going since the Bush Administration allowed tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy. These cuts were supposed to end for those who just keep earning more off the middle class. My question is: I am told that investors can invest as little as $1000.00 in real estate, and make a living...

The story is almost old hat these days. Despite constant warnings to be careful what you post on Facebook, a disgruntled employee who is irritated at a boss, a customer or a co-worker, takes to the social networking site to vent some spleen — and ends up getting disciplined or even fired. It’s a fate that has befallen a North Carolina waitress at a pizza restaurant, a Philadelphia Eagles stadium worker and a group of airline workers in recent months. But what if it’s the boss who decides to use Facebook to complain about an employee?

(snip) Now, I don’t pretend to know how many employers will drop coverage if some workers are offered subsidies to help them buy private coverage on their own. In Massachusetts, not many employers have dropped; (snip) But if these issues won’t be settled for a few years, one thing is certain right now: It would be a fantastic thing — not some calamity — if more people got coverage from the exchanges instead of from their employers. Yet both parties act as if it would be a disaster. (snip) What’s more, the whole GOP line about Democrats “dumping” people into...

Heads up: The Paycheck Fairness Act (PFA) is back on the table. Should it pass, the PFA will likely make employers’ lives much harder. Where it could hurt you The Society for Human Resource Management recently highlighted four major areas of concern for companies. The bill would: • make employers liable for unlimited punitive damages under the Fair Labor Standards Act – even for unintentional pay disparities • eliminate current limits on the amount of back pay and punitive and compensatory damages employees can receive • wipe out the requirement that employees must give written consent to become a party...

Amid high unemployment and a weak economy, employers have been shifting health care costs to workers, according to a study released Thursday. The premiums that employees pay for employer-sponsored family coverage rose an average of 13.7 percent this year, while the amount that employers contribute fell by 0.9 percent, the survey found. For family coverage, workers are paying an average of $3,997, up $482 from last year, while employers are paying an average of $9,773, down $87, according to the survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust. With so many people out of work,...

Amid high unemployment and a weak economy, employers have been shifting health care costs to workers, according to a study released Thursday. The premiums that employees pay for employer-sponsored family coverage rose an average of 13.7 percent this year, while the amount that employers contribute fell by 0.9 percent, the survey found. For family coverage, workers are paying an average of $3,997, up $482 from last year, while employers are paying an average of $9,773, down $87, according to the survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust.

Immigration inspectors poring over the hiring paperwork of a California company last summer found that 262 employees — a whopping 93 percent of the total workforce — had “suspect” documents on file. At an Illinois service company, auditors found dubious documents for nearly 8 in 10 of its 200-plus employees. Inspectors examining records at a Texas manufacturing firm found suspicious paperwork for more than half of the 107 employees on the payroll. But the companies didn’t pay a penny in fines. None of the employers was led away in handcuffs. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials didn’t even issue them a...

More than a week after a judge blocks parts of Arizona's immigration law, the executive director of a Georgia Latino group said if that law is passed in the peach state, the poultry industry would feel the fallout. Jerry Gonzalez with the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials said anywhere between 40 and 50 percent of the workforce in the poultry industry is illegal. "If we were to remove 40 to 50 percent of the workforce, would our economy suffer," Gonzalez asked during WDUN's The Local Hour Friday morning. "The answer to that is yes." He said lawmakers need to...

In his brilliant exposition of why sweeping policy changes often have unintended consequences, the late sociologist Robert K. Merton wrote that leaders get things wrong when their "paramount concern with the foreseen immediate consequences excludes the consideration of further or other consequences" of their proposals. This leads policy makers to assert things that are false, wishing them to be true. Which brings us to President Obama's many claims about his health-care reform. Take his oft-expressed statement that if you like the coverage you have, you can keep it. That sounds good—but perverse incentives in his new law will cause most...

The Obama administration had a message Monday for employers who want to keep federal bureaucrats from rewriting the rules for their company medical plans: Don't jack up costs for workers, and you won't have to worry about interference from the new health care law. "What we don't want is a massive shift of costs to employees," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. She announced a new regulation that spells out how health plans that predate the health overhaul law can avoid its full impact. Meant to deliver on President Barack Obama's promise that people who like their current...

"PricewaterhouseCoopers found that medical costs are expected to rise 9 percent next year. But this doesn't mean workers will see that big a jump. Employers often try to soften the blow."

Obama's massive health care proposal has far reaching implications, many of which we are now only beginning to learn about. One of the biggest areas of concern is the cost to businesses of every size. Higher government costs on business leads to several negative effects, including these businesses becoming less competitive (or leaving the US to avoid the costs), laying off employees to avoid certain regulatory thresholds or simply to remain competitive, and higher prices for consumers (since businesses will be forced to pass on the higher costs of doing business).

Don't be surprised that ObamaCare drives unemployment up. CNBC interviewed a restaurateur who fears the combination of workers comp, ObamaCare and sick time could bury her chain of restaurants she's sent the last 25 years building. Madelyn Alfano has a chain or restaurants in the LA area and is President of the LA Chapter of the California Restaurant Association. She' especially worried about her part time employees who have second job. "If we were to pay for the 400 employees, because the bill talks about part-timers--but for each two part-timers that makes that makes one full-timer--from what I gather, it...

Looking for a way to help unemployed Freepers hook up with Freeper Employers who could use good workers!

Wellness has become the new buzzword in the health care world of the 21st century. Everyone wants to talk about wellness, especially insurance companies and major employers. With wellness programs we can cure the common cause of large butts and employees who are listed as MIA.

One of every six U.S. employers that closed permanently in 2008 was in California, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration using bankruptcy court data. However, one in nine employers that opened in 2008 was in California. The net result was almost 47,000 fewer companies with employees in California by the end of 2008. The data are part of the Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract of the United States 2010. The state had 45.1% more business “deaths” than “births,” one of the steepest changes. Note that many of the closures were started in other years. In California’s case many of those...

Is this a backdoor way to have government takeover of healthcare? So much for not increasing taxes on any family making more than 200k. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is putting a value added tax (VAT) – and other taxes – on the table. To be clear, Pelosi is not suggesting replacing the federal income tax with a VAT, but she is strongly suggesting the elimination of all employer-based health insurance and pension plans.

We have some FReepers desperate to get back into the workforce after being laid off, with families to support. Great guys and gals who believe the way you believe. If they are local to you, wouldn't you prefer to give one of them the chance over just anyone off the street?

Within the past year Sarah Schupp has hired five new employees with freshly minted college degrees. She fired one on his first day for inappropriate sexual comments to a co-worker. Another lasted a week before getting a pink slip. ..." you can't call in sick at 7:45 a.m. just because you don't want to come to work at 8 a.m." Jeanne Achille also was disappointed with the hiring of a recent college hire, promoted by a university professor as a "superstar" and fired after three weeks when it was discovered she spent hours online at work visiting a dating site....

We are Employers for Quality Health Care, a coalition of 20 statewide chambers and employer organizations representing thousands of employers across America, from family-owned businesses to Fortune 500s. Our members are the financial bedrock of the nation's health care system, voluntarily providing coverage for millions of workers and their families. We continue to offer these benefits in the face of record cost increases because we know that access to care is vital to the health of our employees and our communities. We share your goal of reducing costs, improving quality and extending coverage to more Americans -- and we support...

Now is the time for all good capitalists to shop at Whole Foods. Not only will you get great produce, fresh meat, fish and healthy to-go meals, but you'll irritate those who think that President Obama's health-care plan isn't quite progressive enough. John Mackey, co-founder and chief executive of Whole Foods Market -- green missionary and exemplar of corporate compassion -- has riled hard-core reformers by endorsing free-market principles over government-managed health care. Well, knock me over with a wakame frond. (That's seaweed for you tofu-averse.) ...If you're unlucky enough to live in a city without a Whole Foods store,...

CHICAGO, Aug. 6, 2009 – The Army Reserve and National Guard signed partnership agreements with dozens of Chicago and Illinois state employers yesterday to enhance job opportunities for soldiers and veterans. Army Lt. Gen. Jack C. Stultz applauds Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn after Quinn's remarks at the Army Reserve Employer Partnership Initiative signing ceremony in Chicago Aug. 5, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Brian Kersey  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “It is our duty to take care of veterans, who have answered the call to duty and bravely defended our country,” said Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. “I salute Helmets...

Businesses with 25 employees or more would be required to offer health insurance or pay $750 a year per full-time worker to the federal government, under health care reform legislation being considered in the Senate. A "play or pay" employer mandate has been looming for months, but Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee finally defined how small a business would need to be in order to be exempted from the requirement. Most business groups oppose requiring employers to provide health care or pay a fee to the government, even if there is an exemption for small...

JUST as the econ omy begins show ing glimmers of a turnaround, here comes President Obama with a "tax-reform" effort that's sure to sock the stock prices and after-tax profits of many of the biggest US employers. Obama's $190 billion business-tax hike will hit Americans whose jobs and pensions depend on these companies doing well, and will increase pressure on already struggling colleges and hospitals. Why? Because millions of individual investors hold the companies' stocks in their portfolios, mutual funds and pension funds, as do many colleges, hospitals, museums and other institutions in their endowments. Among the important employers in...

There's been a whole lotta shootin' going on out there in recent times. Just wondering how many Freepers are employed at Companies that prohibit firearms on the property. I am curious as to how common a practice that is. If you don't mind, please sound off on what your Company's policy is, whether you are the Employer or the Employee. Anything you could add, regarding any incidents of violence, use of firearms in self-defense, etc., at the workplace, would be most appreciated. I plan on using the information I gain as "ammunition" to get my Employer to reverse its policy...

DENVER, March 27, 2009 – Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. signed on to the Army Reserve Employer Partnership Initiative at a March 20 ceremony here that also drew 11 private-sector employers. Army Reserve Sgt. Gregory S. Ruske, who earned the Silver Star medal for gallantry in Afghanistan, shakes hands with Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. in Denver, March 20, 2009. The two attended a ceremony in which the state of Colorado joined the Army Reserve’s Employer Partnership Initiative. U.S. Army photo by Jack Dempsey  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The governor is the first to commit all state...

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2009 – A program that links Army reservists with civilian employers is going strong -- despite record unemployment and gloomy hiring predictions -- as more employers sign on every month so they can hire qualified reservists. The American Trucking Association and INOVA Health Systems of Northern Virginia broke new ground in April 2008 as the first formal members of the Army Reserve Employer Partnership Initiative. Within six months, 65 employers had joined, and the program hit a milestone in February with its 200th employer partner. Now Army Reserve officials are laying plans for the University of...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21, 2009 – Wyoming’s committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve has been busy for 18 months preparing businesses that will be hard-hit by the largest reserve deployment in state history. The state is readying nearly 1,000 troops -- more than half of its Army National Guard soldiers and more than a third of its total Guard force -- for deployment to Iraq and Kuwait in April. The impact has been felt throughout the nation’s least-populous state, and nearly every community is affected, top leaders say. “The effect is pretty much the same everywhere, but...

The future of employment in the U.S. under the Obama Democrats. Five of the top six employers in Chicago are government. CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS A list of the area's 25 largest employers, ranked by number of Chicago-based full-time employees. Published Jan. 5, 2009. Rank Company No. of full-time local employees as of 9/30/2008: 1 U.S. Government 78,000 2 Chicago Public Schools 43,910 3 City of Chicago 35,570 4 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. 23,453 5 Cook County 22,142 6 State of Illinois 18,124

Thank You Brian for reminding our Representatives that our first priority is to get our economy on track and that isn’t done by eliminating statutes of limitations and eliminating caps on punitive damages besides the act being “UNFAIR”.

OH YEAH -- CHANGE IS COMING! The election of Barack Obama has some employers quaking in their boots. Look into the crystal ball and prepare for dramatic changes in employment law and labor activity from unions to sick leave to ergonomics. Employers can expect to see more new workplace regulations than at any time in the last two decades. The Democrats are teeing up several bills and some issues demand attention immediately. Unions -- One issue looms far above all the others for Alabama Employers -- the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Obama supports the Employee Free Choice Act. This...

The Bush administration in its final weeks will revive a stalled crackdown on U.S. companies that hire illegal immigrants, issuing a new regulation and asking a federal judge to lift a ban on the measure, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced yesterday. If the court agrees, the government could begin mailing notices to 140,000 employers regarding suspect Social Security numbers used by an estimated 8.7 million workers, pressuring businesses to either resolve discrepancies or fire workers within 90 days. -Snip- Bush unveiled the Social Security "no-match" letter initiative in August 2007 after the Senate failed to pass an immigration overhaul...

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff plans to announce changes to rules designed to stop businesses from hiring people working in the country illegally. The rules proposed to force employers to fire workers whose names don't match their Social Security numbers....

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2008 – Fifteen employers accepted a Defense Department award last night for their exceptional financial and emotional support of National Guard and Reserve members on their payrolls. Thomas F. Hall, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs; Air Force Lt. Gen. Craig R. McKinley, director of the Air National Guard; and David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, prepare to present the Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award at the Employer Support of Guard and Reserve ceremony Sept. 18, 2008, in Washington, D.C. Defens Dept. photo by John J. Kruzel  (Click photo for...

Howard Weyers tried the "carrot" approach by giving his employees incentives and encouragement to quit smoking. But when that didn't work, he resorted to the stick. A big stick. Weyers, owner of a health care benefits administrator in Lansing, Mich., gave his 200 employees an ultimatum in 2004: Quit smoking in 15 months or lose your job. He refused to hire smokers. Ultimately, he extended his smoking ban to employees' spouses and monitored compliance through mandatory random blood testing. Weyers' method, while effective, wouldn't fly in California because the state has laws that prohibit employers from making hiring or firing...

From the New York Times. President Bush has ordered federal contractors to participate in the Department of Homeland Security’s electronic system for verifying the immigration status of their workers, greatly expanding the reach of the administration’s crackdown on employers who hire illegal immigrants. So, with 6 months to go Bush decides to become a nut-cracker on immigration.

President Bush has signed an executive order requiring contractors and others who do business with the federal government to make sure their employees can legally work in the United States. Mr. Bush signed the order Friday and the White House announced the order Monday. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez planned an afternoon news conference to discuss the order and other ways the administration has stepped up its crackdown on illegal immigration. The order says federal departments and agencies must require contractors to use an electronic system to verify that the workers are eligible to work...

Leave it to the Bush administration to throw thousands of law-abiding American workers and companies off a cliff in perilous economic times. That would be the effect of its decision to press ahead with a bad idea: to force businesses to fire employees whose names don’t match the Social Security database. The purge is part of a campaign — along with scattershot workplace raids and the partial border fence — to make a show of tackling the broken immigration system. The plan rests on the assumption that people with Social Security glitches are illegal immigrants using fake identities. Companies that...

http://www.ktrh.com/main.html PLEASE FREEP THIS POLL! Question of the Day Should companies be allowed to require their workers to speak English-only? Yes so far 27.78 % No so far 72.22 %

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court justices questioned Wednesday whether a state should be able to prohibit employers from using state money to influence employees' views on unions in their workplace. The Chamber of Commerce and the Bush administration argue that California is trying to silence employers from weighing in on union organization efforts. They say that position isn't permitted by federal labor law, which allows employers to be involved as long as they don't threaten reprisals. The outcome of the case could affect attempts by other states to restrict use of state money for unionization-related activities. California contends that its law...

Robert Beasley says he is “training young adults to be professional” — and he approaches his job with all the enthusiasm of an evangelist. Beasley, 48, is a career specialist with Arbor Education and Training located at the Greenwood WIN Job Center. The program teaches young adults how to act during an interview, complete a job application, assemble a resume and cover letter and perform other related tasks. “Basically, we’re giving them the skills to find a job, to get a job and to keep that job,” said Beasley, a Greenwood native and Jackson State University graduate. Arbor Education and...

.S. Hiking Fines For Illegal Immigrant Hiring by 25 Percent Friday , February 22, 2008 WASHINGTON — The government says it will raise by 25 percent the fines it will levy against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced the increase, which is the first boost in fines in nearly a decade. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency responsible for investigating illegal hirings, has stepped up its enforcement of the employer sanctions law in the past year,

WASHINGTON — The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Wednesday that employers could reduce or eliminate health benefits for retirees when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare. The policy, set forth in a new regulation, allows employers to establish two classes of retirees, with more comprehensive benefits for those under 65 and more limited benefits — or none at all — for those older. More than 10 million retirees rely on employer-sponsored health plans as a primary source of coverage or as a supplement to Medicare, and Naomi C. Earp, the commission’s chairwoman, said, “This rule will help employers...

The Bush administration will suspend its legal defense of a new rule issued in August to punish employers who hire illegal immigrants, conceding a hard-fought opening round in a court battle over a central measure in its strategy to curb illegal immigration, according to government papers filed late Friday in federal court. Instead, the administration plans to revise the rule to try to meet concerns raised by a federal judge and issue it again by late March, hoping to pass court scrutiny on the second try. The rule would have forced employers to fire workers within 90 days if their...