There is fresh evidence Obamacare is not only discouraging firms from creating new jobs, but it's also actually reducing the size of the labor force, according to
Sally Pipes, CEO of the Pacific Research Institute and the author of the book The Cure For Obamacare.
In a guest column for Forbes, Pipes said small businesses are speaking out against Obamacare as the November mid-term elections approach.
"Evidence is mounting that Obamacare raises health costs for small firms and thereby reduces workers' wages. Writ large across the entire economy, the law is not just discouraging firms from creating new jobs — it's actually reducing the size of the labor force."
Pipes cited
a new study from the American Action Forum that concluded regulations imposed by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are reducing small business (20 to 99 workers) pay by at least $22.6 billion annually.
In addition, those regulations and rising premiums have forced employment cuts of more than 350,000 jobs nationwide, with five states losing more than 20,000 jobs, the American Action Forum research found.
"While there was no significant relationship between healthcare premiums and employment before the ACA, since 2010 small businesses have slowly started shedding jobs and reducing wages," the American Action Forum study stated.
Pipes said another study, by the
American Health Policy Institute, found that Obamacare will also shrink the labor force by reducing incentives to work.
"In other words, workers are going to get squeezed from both sides. There will be less demand for them even as Obamacare makes it less financially appealing to have a job," she wrote.
"These subsidies are pegged to their income levels — the less they make, the more they get from the government. That creates a substantial disincentive for people to work more — or at all."
According to Pipes, it should be no surprise that the U.S. labor force participation rate is already at its lowest ebb since 1978, with only 62.8 percent of able-bodied American adults working or even seeking a a job.
"Fewer workers mean fewer taxpayers — even as more people become dependent on the government handouts that those taxes pay for," she said.
CBS Moneywatch reported that about half of the historic decline in the labor force participation rate can be attributed to the aging baby boom generation exiting the work force. But the rest of the reason why is a mystery to many economists.
Bob Funk, CEO of global staffing company Express Employment Professionals, told Moneywatch the fall in the labor force is obscuring how high unemployment actually is.
"For society, fewer people working means less revenue for the government and higher outlays on social programs," he said. "It also means there are fewer people paying into Social Security and Medicare, at a time when both programs are already running out of money due to the baby boomer retirement."
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