On Monday afternoon, Reps. Dan Lipinski (D-IL3) and Todd Young (R-IN9) announced they would be consolidating their efforts to redefine full-time employment as the traditional 40-hour work week under the Affordable Care Act.  Lipinski—who authored H.R. 2988, the Forty Hours is Full Time Act—has joined Young’s H.R. 2575, the Save American Workers Act, as a co-sponsor.

“Last summer I introduced the Forty Hours is Full Time Act to change the ACA's definition of full time work from 30 to 40 hours,” said Lipinski.  “Today I am happy to join with Rep. Young on his Save American Workers Act to make a bipartisan push to a floor vote on this commonsense issue. This needed change to the ACA will protect part-time workers from losing work schedule flexibility and potentially losing 10 hours of wages a week.”

“As we prepare for possible floor action to restore the traditional understanding of full-time employment, I’m grateful to Congressman Lipinski for his support of this effort,” said Young.  “By helping to restore the hours of hardworking Americans across the country, we’re protecting their paychecks.  That should be a principle we can all get behind, regardless of our party affiliation.”

The Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on the impact of the 30-hours-is-full-time provision of the Affordable Care Act on January 28.  Testimony from representatives of the retail, restaurant and education sectors focused on hourly workers seeing their hours cut to 29 hours or less, resulting in effective pay cuts for as many as 2.6 million employees nationwide.  On February 4, the Ways and Means Committee held a markup of Young’s bill, and referred it to the full House of Representatives.

In addition to Lipinski, three other Democrats signed on as co-sponsors to H.R. 2575.  A similar bill has been introduced on a bipartisan basis in the Senate.