Two hundred North Carolina teachers are getting their hours cut due to Obamacare, WITN reports.
Under Obamacare employees who work 30 or more hours must be offered health insurance by their employer. The insurance is costly and drains employers of their funds.
Jordan Banjo, a substitute teacher from Pitt County, is worried that she will not be able to make ends meet due to her hours being cut. She works as a substitute teacher and at a coffee shop, but even this is not enough income for her to live on.
Until last month, she was working more than 30 hours a week. The district sent a notice to all substitute teachers informing them that their hours would be reduced to only three days a week- about 21 hours.
"I need the money. I need to work. I’m willing and able to work, and now they’re telling me you can only work for so long," Banjo told WITN-NC.
Brock Letchworth, Pitt County Schools Spokesman explained the district’s health insurance predicament, "We’re looking at just over $1 million [to provide health insurance] and that’s the lowest cost for this school system."
Should the district refuse to provide health insurance for their full time workers, they face a penalty of more than $6 million.
Pitt County currently employs 400 substitute teachers.
"We had about 200 who were averaging more than the 30 hours per week that the Affordable Care Act deems to be full-time," he said. The school, unable to afford health insurance for all of their substitute teachers, has been forced to cut their hours.
Banjo is unsure what will happen next. "It’s very difficult. If I didn’t have my parents, I’d be in a lot of trouble," she said.