Trader Joe’s to No Longer Provide Health Coverage for Part-Time Employees

Trader Joe’s, a company once praised for providing health care to part-time workers, announced that it will no longer offer coverage for employees who work less than 30 hours a week.

The news comes from a confidential memo obtained by HuffPo. In the memo, Trader Joe’s CEO Dan Bane states that starting next year, part-timers will need to find coverage through the new health insurance exchanges. In order to ease the transition, the company will cut workers a check for $500 in January and provide assistance to those finding a new plan under the Affordable Care Act.

“Depending on income you may earn outside of Trader Joe’s… we believe that with the $500 from Trader Joe’s and the tax credits available under the ACA, many of you should be able to obtain health care coverage at very little if any net cost to you,” said Bane in the memo.

Despite the company’s attempt to help part-timers navigate this new reality, the news remains a major blow, especially for workers already on a tight budget.

“There are several folks I work with who are there for the insurance as much as anything, mostly folks with young families,” a current Trader Joe’s employee told HuffPo. “I can say that when I opened and read the letter yesterday my reaction was pure panic, followed quickly by anger.”

Trader Joe’s has refused to confirm or  deny the memo’s existence and will continue to offer coverage to those employees working 30 hours or more.

The memo follows Starbuck’s recent decision to provide insurance to part-timers who work a minimum of 20 hours.

H/T HuffPo + PicThx Wiki