Shelbie Harris

Staff Writer

A revised policy draft increasing hours available to part-time Idaho State University students and temporary employees has been proposed to the campus community.

The revision would allow individuals in these positions the opportunity to work under 25 hours per week rather than the previous and current amount of fewer than 20 hours, which was established back in June.

The policy, adopted earlier this summer, was in response to the employer shared responsibility provisions outlined by the Affordable Care Act requiring all employers nationwide with at least 50 employees to provide health benefits to full time employees and their dependents effective in 2015.

A concern was that these federal changes could possibly have a negative impact not only for students and individuals in these positions but also for the departments.

“It’s been a challenging project, much of it driven by changing the federal landscape. We have to adjust our practices,” said Director of Human Resources Brian Sagendorf. “It’s a challenge because we have a lot of departments that rely heavily on student employees; we have a lot of students that rely heavily on the available employment opportunities.”

In addition to allowing students and other part-time employees to work up to 25 hours per week during the academic year, these employees will also be able to work full-time, up to 40 hours, during the summer months.

According to the IRS website, when the Affordable Care Act is adopted come 2015 any employee that has worked 30 hours per week or more for the last 12 months is to be provided benefits from his or her respective employer.

To ensure that these employees fall under that 30 hour average for the collective year, the policy was initially set for 20 hours incorporating the summer and academic periods of the year.

In addition to the importance of determining the yearly average of hours worked by an employee there is also the concern of tracking and reporting hours by employees that are employed with multiple departments.

“There are some situations where dual employment occurs and we have got to make sure to track those hours because we’re one employer, not two separate ones. It’s just Idaho State University,” said Sagendorf.

The revision is currently reaching the end of its 30 day comment period and has been received positively by campus officials and student employees alike.

“After receiving comments, if everything goes through smoothly and there aren’t any significant problems that arise, once the president and cabinet say it’s good to go we adopt it,” said Sagendorf. “We could have it adopted as soon as this month.”

With the increase, employees will be able to add up to 10 extra hours per paychec. To many that could be considered a very important chunk of change.

“The number one reason students don’t stay in school is finances, affordability,” said Associated Students of Idaho State University (ASISU) President Kyle Son. “So now if they are trying to juggle two part-time jobs [with the under 20 hour policy] and pay for school, and pay for rent and take care of a family it’s too much,” he continued.

By achieving a middle ground between 20 and 30 hours per week not only will current students be provided with a higher income opportunity but the university will benefit from being able to create additional part time opportunities while maintaining consistency across the departments.