Isn't that uniquely American.

Many places want you to be available at any time. There is not set schedule, so you can't do multiple part-time unless you work on your own or contract hours.

have been doing this for decades. It is nothing new. They don't have to have to pay benefits, and can lower the wages besides. It's not the "Obamacare". I worked for McD's back in the 90s and they only hired part-timers, except for "managment".

This is absolutely nothing new.

And had free health insurance as a part time employee.

Back then even large national companies believed in treating employees well.

Some of the supermarket chains in NY are Union. As such, their part-timers got health benefits. Non-Union stores? Nope. My daugther works in Loss Prevention and is considered "management", even as a hourly employee. Her positions were all full time with benefits.

A close relative worked in an auditing office for Sears and I recall her telling me about them hiring more part-timers to avoid paying benefits--back in the 70s!

My first jobs were as a cashier in supermarkets. At one in particular, I was always scheduled at 39.5 hours a week, or just under 40 hours. I had never had health insurance, parents never had it therefore I never did. I was so excited to get my first full time job at a bank where I finally got to have health insurance and be able to go the dr regularly for the first time at 21 years old. It's pretty shocking to me that a lot of people don't know this happens. I think it's because they never had to think about it.

My daughter had worked in a Piggly Wiggly for over 2 years and with cost of fuel and lack of full time yet working 5 days a week......actually she was losing money when vehicle insurance, tires, upkeep and GAS were figured in. No benefits....one raise in 2 years yet she brought the store up to a 100% rating with the 'company'...it had not achieved this rating in over 5 years. She regretfully had to resign her position when vehicle repairs totally depleted her funds....to the point I was buying gas for her. With no insurance either, she also had/has medical expense every month for High BP and POCS(?). She haas applied for job after job after job locally with no luck and no call backs. We live in a small southern town so it isn't what you know but who you know that counts when looking for work. I keep encouraging and helping any way I can...even let her move ba ck home with me. This economy sucks.....the job market sucks...wages have dropped in most jobs. When I retired in 2001, my pay scale was over 27 dollars an hour.....they now only pay 17 dollars an hour for the same position and with far less benefits than I had. The reduced pay scales and rising costs of everything necessary to life, it is getting harder and harder for many to simply survive.

20 or 30 years. Middle class wages have not kept pace with the cost of living. My husband makes the same as he did 20 years ago. Offshored several times (IT) and it took years to get up to the salary he was making before. Meanwhile the costs of everything kept going up. The only thing that saved us was that kids grew up and there are now only the 2 of us.

I made $8/hour in 1978 when the minimum wage was about $3/hour an hour? Today working as a special needs TA in public school it was $11/hour. I also have a college degree now. I worked there for 5 years with only one 10 cents an hour increase. After that all salaries were FROZEN INDEFINITELY. Again, this is in the South. I made more money in NY public schools 5 years ago, and got $1/hour raises.

Again, this has been going on for a LONG time. You cannot blame Obama for this. It's ALL wages; private and public.

Except nowhere in my post did I blame Obama.

but the Republicans, AND my Repuke husband, SHOULD KNOW THIS. He has lived it for 20 years.

Medicare for all who want it!

Employees who can't go to the Doctor can make our customers sick! 6 years of college wasn't wasted on whoever thought that one up!

Instead, I'll patronize businesses which are progressive.

did the same decades ago. So did many other companies but no one gave a damn then. Maybe if we had been upset over thirty years ago things would be different. But then again people were looking at their 401k plans and thinking they would be rich and said screw those who won't be.

because there are too many other people who simply want a job and will take it even if the employer offers no health insurance.

If you need FULL TIME WAGES, you will need to find TWO, or maybe THREE, part-time jobs to make up for the wages. Remember when Bush laughed at the woman with 3 part-time jobs? Again, this is not a new concept. Whatever is cheaper for the employer.

have foisted on us over the last 30 - 40 years.

Mandate or not.

What's an extra 80 bucks a month on your already overburdened budget?

What makes you think the cost of healthcare is "80 bucks a month"?

Medicare for all.

this action by the employers is the most predictable thing in the world, so how do these workers get insurance and how much will they have to pay for it?

Just like Romney said.

Medicare for all.

- only stuff out there is part time. Job's that used to be full time are now part time. No perks, no benefits, no paid leave or holidays.

Most employers offer "flexible"/part time hours. Keeps employees "hungry" for hours, and as long as the employer is "careful", they always keep them just under the threshold where benefits kick in.
The often understated/unstated "promise" of full-time status (someday) keeps employees eager-to-please and slow to complain/

Part time status also probably makes for less paperwork when bosses want to lay them off or let them go.

Only "primo" jobs these days are "full-time"...and in many cases, full time is usually not even 40 hrs a week anymore.

My husband works in computer IT.
I can't remember when he last worked a 40-hour week.
Usually he has to work from home on weekends.

...he ran a 24/7 operation with a full time staff of 3 people...the rest (about 15) were part timers. It was strictly financial...these people were limited to no more than 30 hours a week. They got no benefits and could be fired at will without any ability to claim unemployment benefits. The full time weren't much better as he expected 60 plus hours a week or there was always an anxious part timer who'd take the job.

The other scam is making employees "contractors" and then not only didn't they get benefits, they also had to pay their own SSI. This isn't anything new, just a lot more common...

The reduction was driven by several factors. Given the challenging job market, Darden has been able to offer lower pay rates to new hires. Bonuses for general managers have been reduced as sales have stagnated. Servers at Red Lobster are handling four tables at a time, instead of three.

And last year, the company also put workers on a “tip sharing” program, meaning waiters and waitresses share their tips with other employees such as busboys and bartenders. That allows Darden to pay more workers a far lower “tip credit wage” of $2.13, rather than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/10/09/3858817/olive-garden-owner-putting-more.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy

so now the poor waitress / waiter has to share with the bartender?
when I worked as a waiter some of us shared with the bus boys (got our tables cleared faster )
but this truly stinks ....

One way to keep from paying overtime and benefits is to make employees part time, sometimes a good thing when there is a work sharing arrangement for workers whose family needs call for it. However, with so many out there looking for jobs and with mostly low-paying service jobs being available, they should have no problem filling the ranks with part time workers. The workers for their part will probably have to sign up for one or more extra jobs to make enough to survive and they will be cheated out of their benefits and overtime. It's not a good situation.

All bow down to the great and glorious Job Creators - creating non-benefit part time jobs to line their pockets and screw the American worker.

Ayn Rand would be soooooooooo proud.

I feel sorry for folks who don't have reasonable access to decent restaurants, and have this prepackaged factory food as their only alternative for a night out.

Got cancer? Have a free breadstick or two...

your health access shouldn't depend on your work status.

unemployment rates. Seems to me that it is big business that is at fault and the endless hunt for productivity that is replacing these jobs and others.

Because they could achieve that better by letting their employees eat all their meals there for free.

I haven't had a full-time job in six years. I had a full-time job for one year (2006-2007) but before that, didn't have one since 1999. Before THAT I could only get f/t work as a permatemp so companies didn't have to pay benefits. Get a grip, People. This has been SOP throughout service, retail and professional industries since the Clinton era.

but they can take their OVERPRICED fake chef school, sodium filled shit and throw it in the garbage because I won't eat at their restaurants.




Sorry to burst your bubble, Olive Garden fans, but that "cooking school" in Tuscany, the one where the chain's chefs supposedly go to learn the secrets of Italian cuisine from the source? It's pretty much a sham.

This according to a former Olive Garden manager, who's causing a flurry of discussion at Reddit (much of it oddly trading on obscene jokes about breadsticks-you've been warned). The manager, posting as FIDELIA079, claims that he scored a lucky, all-expense-paid (except souvenirs) trip to the chain's Tuscan "culinary institute" in 2007.

It seems the Olive Garden doesn't even own the place. They just book all the rooms at some hotel in the off-season, close the place to the public, and take over the restaurant. Sporadic "classes" lasted "maybe an hour here or there" where they would "talk about spices or fresh produce for a minute" before taking the group site-seeing for the day. Lots of drinking ensued.

If it sounds like just a ploy to allow the ubiquitous strip-mall-Italian chain to claim that its staff is trained in the Old Country-apparently, it is.


Read more: http://www.slashfood.com/2011/04/14/the-truth-behind-the-olive-gardens-tuscan-cooking-school/#ixzz28s1foNyo

Coming from a family with old school Sicilian immigrants - I know what real Italian food tastes like. What the Olive Garden serves is like a microwave meal compared to real homemade Italian food.

But try getting a seat at our local red lobster without a reservation and a 1 hour wait.

Our closest Red Lobster shares a parking lot with a wonderful Chinese restaurant we eat at frequently. Not only is the lot almost always full, the line at Red Lobster is out the door nearly every time we are there.

sigh....

NEVER had health insurance from these f*cks in the first place. End of stupid story.

Whether they are bad at employing, or too good at being sly they are not doing well for government nor the people and they need be curbed.

Tax it.

It's clear, it's needed.

when i worked at a grocery in the early 90s at many places they gave the "full timers" 39 hours...

you know?

This is yet more reason why truly universal health care is needed. We've got to end the BS of rule by insurance companies, health care costs will never be reigned in, they will continue to soar unchecked, there's a better way, cut out the middle man, and have real health care, not the rationing we now have.