UPS and McDonald’s may not have much in common, but in the last couple of days they have certainly found common ground in hating the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Well, they love to call it “Obamacare” like most of the Republicans. UPS came out yesterday saying they were going to cut 15,000 worker’s spouses from their insurance plan to save money. An ex-McDonald’s CEO came out on Fox News (of course) and said, “Obamacare is going to drop 15 to 20 percent of small businesses off the face of the earth.”  He also continued his gloom and doom scenario by saying that raising the minimum wage to $15/hour would “absolutely” kill jobs.
UPS must be clairvoyant
Of course CEOs and big companies do not want to implement a minimum wage increase to a living wage, but it is not because their business would suffer. It is because their profits would drop and instead of making $1 billion dollars a year, they would make $500 million. Oh, I am sorry, are we supposed to feel bad about that?
While the ACA has some kinks to work out; a majority of Liberals and Democrats would love to the ACA become universal health care, it is the best system we have at the moment. Yet, UPS is cutting spouses from insurance coverage because they “think” it will cost more. They are “anticipating” the higher cost of insurance, but have no proof that it will cost more. They are listening to the Republican lies and fear tactics.
Here is where it gets tricky; the spouses they are cutting are of non-union members. (See why unions are better for America). If you belong to the union, your coverage stays. The non-union workers do not get union wages and they are usually the ones at the bottom of the totem pole. They make $8.50/hour which is above minimum wage and work full-time hours. Those workers are the ones who put blood, sweat, and tears into their job loading and unloading the trucks at the warehouses. According to AOL Jobs, the average salary for a package handler is $22,637/year. A loader and unloader makes $33,780/year.  Depending on the family size, most of those jobs fall below or at the poverty line.