Corporations Supporting Obamacare - Thank you Starbucks

Shame on companies that cut employee hours and, thereby, their pay because the corporations won't comply with health care reform or the Affordable Care Act, aka "Obamacare".

Starbucks, thankfully, is a refreshingly ethical exception.

Corporate officers in big businesses continue to receive stock options for bonuses. Certainly, they must remember the people who earn the corporation's financial successes.  

Management earns very little of the money corporations pay their executives.  Rather, the big corporate salaries, bonuses and generous benefits, including executive health insurance, are earned by hard working hourly employees, for management to reap.  It's hard working personnel who earn the benefits the corporate executives see in their salaries.

Obviously, hourly workers deserve health insurance coverage, regardless of how many hours they work.

Employees certainly don't deserve to have hours and pay cut because of health care reform, especially when management keeps their bonuses and benefits. 

It's an understatement to accuse corporations that cut employee hours and, therefore, pay, because they won't comply with Obamacare, as acting selfishly.

Rather than cut employee hours, somebody should recommend cutting executive salaries for those in management who refuse to comply with health care reform.

Employers around the country, from fast-food franchises to colleges,  told NBC News they will be cut workers' hours below 30 a week because they can't afford to offer the health insurance mandated by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
But, Starbucks, the popular coffee dynasty, won't cut worker hours or benefits ahead of Obamacare says the CEO.

When Starbucks Corporation stands up in support of employee health insurance benefits under Obamacare, then other companies can do the same thing. 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Starbucks Coffee Co will not follow the lead of some other companies (like Subway) that are cutting health insurance benefits or reducing hours for employees in anticipation of the U.S. Affordable Care Act, the coffee shop chain's CEO Howard Schultz told Reuters on Monday.

"Other companies have announced that they won't provide coverage for spouses; others are lobbying for the cut-off to be at 40 hours. But Starbucks will continue maintaining benefits for partners and won't use the new law as excuse to cut benefits or lower benefits for its workers," Schultz said in a telephone interview.

The 2010 healthcare reform law, often called Obamacare, requires companies with more than 50 employees to offer health insurance for employees who work 30 hours a week or more. Starbucks currently provides healthcare to part-timers who work 20 hours a week or more.

And, therefore, all other companies with 50 or more employees can and should follow the Starbucks lead. 

For my part, Starbucks is a now a preferred coffee company.