As if college students looking for jobs didn’t have enough to worry about, here’s another obstacle presented by the Affordable Care Act.

Nick Beadleston of The UCCS Scribe reports.

Merry Christmas: Health care law to potentially eliminate full-time student jobs

Several parts of the Affordable Care Act go into effect in early 2014. The employer mandate, which was delayed until January 2015, may redefine the traditional workweek, changing how businesses and institutions nationwide calculate pay.

The CU system, and UCCS by extension, is still unsure how the new law will effect student employment.

“It will have a change definitely on how we calculate time worked,” said Lisa Landis, assistant vice president, Employee Services for the CU system. “We are getting very little guidance from federal regulations.”

According to an ACA provision, “a full-time employee with respect to any month is an employee who is employed on average at least 30 hours of service per week.”

“We’re trying to get clarity around how the 75 percent fulltime equivalency will apply to student employees, said Susan Szpyrka, vice chancellor for Administration and Finance.

“It isn’t saying that someone can’t work 35 hours in one week or 39 hours in one week. It’s saying that we’re still trying to figure it out,” said Szpyrka. “I’ve been asking for advice on this now since probably July.”

Much of the question hinges on if the 30-hour limit will be enforced as a weekly maximum or as a 1,560-hour yearly total.

“I cannot tell you we are or are not going to restrict people to 30 hours a week because we have made no decision on that,” Szpyrka said.

Initially, CU Employee Services conducted a “look-back period” from Oct. 1, 2012, to Sept. 30, 2013, to see how a 1,560 cap on hours a year would affect student employees.