Target to end health coverage for part-time workers

Minneapolis – Target Corp. is the latest major retailer to announce it will stop offering health insurance to its part-time employees. In a company blog post on Jan. 21, Target said it will no longer provide health insurance coverage to part time workers after April 1, 2014.



The blog post said Target is stopping the coverage, which fewer than 10% of Target’s 361,000-person workforce currently uses, due to the availability of public healthcare exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. Target said employees could be disqualified from receiving government-subsidized health care if they are offered a company plan.

"Healthcare reform is transforming the benefits landscape and affecting how all employers, including Target, administer health benefits coverage," Jodee Kozlack, Target's executive VP of human resources, said in a corporate blog post Tuesday. "Our decision to discontinue this benefit comes after careful consideration of the impact of our stores' part-time team members and to Target, the new options available for our part-time team, and the historically low number of team members who elected to enroll in the part-time plan."

Other retailers that have also announced intentions to stop offering health insurance to part-time employees due to the availability of public insurance exchanges include The Home Depot and Trader Joe’s.