Obamacare and Cedar Point

I was curious if new health insurance mandates apply to seasonal workers, and if so, what that would mean for the price we pay to visit Cedar Point.

Given that Cedar Point hires thousands of seasonal workers, I am curious if this will make them change their hiring policies (hire more workers and max hours at 30 per week).

Please no flaming. I am actually curious about this.

-Sam

Several provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act have already been enacted. Haven't noticed any difference in prices so far.

Hey Jes. Long time no talk. How is Dorney treating you?

I'm not really sure but I know that amusement parks open less than six months a year aren't required to pay any overtime, so they might be exempt from obamacare too. Just a thought.

The park has offered health insurance for their seasonal employees for several years now. I seriously doubt you'll see anything change because of it, at CP or anywhere else.

Avalanche Sam said:
I am curious if this will make them change their hiring policies (hire more workers and max hours at 30 per week).

I'm not sure, but I can say that there will be lots of unintended consequences that go along with this program, just like every other government program. I don't think anybody knows exactly what those will be yet, since many parts of it have not been enacted. I know for sure that as a business owner, I won't be hiring any permanent employees any time soon (not a political statement, just a fact of the matter).

And to Jesmelel's point, though some provisions are already in effect, the implementation of the important ones was delayed until after the election.

Out of curiosity, how many employees had you originally planned on hiring?

Seasonal employees are eligible for a health insurance plan? I had not heard of that and I didn't see any details on their website. Do you have more information about that Ralph?

Yea seasonal employees are eligible for a healthcare plan. It isn't on the website but in the employee handbook all of us get when we process in it gives us the option to purchase healthcare through HR.

I wanna say that have been offering it since 2008.

Cedar Point can barely hire enough workers to staff the park for the whole season while working 60 hours a week. I doubt they'd be able to find enough willing workers to staff double that many, in order to get them down to 30 a week.

I do believe it was either 08 or 09 that they started it. I never signed up for it, so I don't know what it cost or what kinds of benefits it offers.

MaverickLaunch said:
I know for sure that as a business owner, I won't be hiring any permanent employees any time soon

I'm no business major, but shouldn't that be dictated by demand for whatever it is you're selling? I mean, you don't just find some extra cash laying around and say to yourself, "I think I'll hire some employees just for the hell of it" do you?

You guys need to read and comprehend the complete sentence. I said I wouldn't hire any "permanent" employees any time soon. That doesn't include other paid labor options like independent contractors, part time, etc. I would shift my hired help into those categories instead of hiring new permanent full time help.

It wasn't intended to incite a political argument, just stating a fact related to the topic.

Hiring contractors seems like a trend that became more prevalent long before Obamacare became a thing, at least in my experience. Our company, and in fact many around the industry, started focusing on contractors almost 10 years ago.

The whole contractor thing seems really shady to me (and indeed, it came about long before Obama was in office.) I sure as heck would never agree to work under those arrangements, and I have several friends who have been burned badly by those sorts of jobs.

It's basically a way to ignore most labor laws and regulations by taking advantage of people who are desperate for some something resembling a job. The whole thing is a deplorable race to the bottom, which also hurts "regular" employees who have to compete with these underpaid and benefit-less positions.

Yeah, where I work, it's basically used as an inexpensive vetting process, where we hire based on demand, and if you're awesome, you're kept on full time. That's how I ended up with my job.

But I don't think it's all that bad. So long as you can add value to a company or have a valuable skill, you shouldn't have much to worry about. "Deplorable race to the bottom" seems like an extreme characterization.

While I have some qualms about using it as a vetting process, I wouldn't necessarily categorize that as deplorable. My issue mainly lies with the companies that have been feverishly eliminating most if not all full time positions and replacing them with what's more or less permanent contract positions. I know it's been running rampant in IT for about 10 years now, and more recently, architects and most disciplines of engineers have been bitten by the contract work as well.

Companies are in business to generate earnings and have a responsibility to shareholders to maximize share value. They are not charities and they do not have a responsibility to give people jobs for life. Their employment practices are restricted in many ways by various laws as well as tax code treatment. Why are we faulting companies for using IC's when it is often, for certain functions, clearly in their best interest to do so? As long as they are within the boundaries of the law, who are we to say that it's right or wrong?

If you think this practice is prevalent now, just wait a couple years till Obamacare is fully implemented...

And that's exactly my point. When you get to the point where you see employees as nothing more than worthless pawns obstructing your ability to make more money for yourself, that's where the system fails. You and every other business owner would be absolutely nothing without your employees, and it's sickening that we have to pass laws to get employers to treat their workers like actual human beings. I'm not saying the fry cook at McDonald's should be making $30 an hour, but they deserve to be treated with some basic dignity. They do a heck of a lot more for the company than "shareholders" ever will.

Beyond that, there's the issue of every time one of your underpaid contract employees has to go on food stamps or medicare because you refuse to take care of them, it cost me and every other taxpayer money that ought to be coming from your pocket. That's something worth getting upset about in my opinion. You made a decision to start a business, you deal with the responsibilities that come with it.

MaverickLaunch said:
If you think this practice is prevalent now, just wait a couple years till Obamacare is fully implemented...

At least those contracted employees will have health care. Right now, lack of benefits is one of the most appealing aspect of contractors.