This article reflects my personal experiences, observations, and opinions about part-time and seasonal employment, employee benefits, healthcare, wages, and what it means to work without a financial safety net.
I want to talk about something that doesn’t get nearly enough attention when we talk about employment.
Benefits.
Not just your paycheck.
Health insurance.
Paid time off.
Sick time.
Retirement benefits.
Paid holidays.
Disability insurance.
Employer contributions.
And the financial security that comes with knowing that your job provides more than just a few dollars deposited into your bank account.
Because here’s something I’ve learned over the years:
Having a job doesn’t necessarily mean having a safety net.
You can be working.
You can be showing up.
You can be doing the job you’re asked to do.
And you can still be one medical emergency, vehicle repair, or missed paycheck away from financial disaster.
I’ve experienced this myself.
I’ve worked for companies where employees were scheduled around thirty hours a week, which meant they could work substantial hours without receiving the same benefits as full-time employees.
And that experience made something very clear to me:
There is a huge difference between having a job and having a good job.
The 30-Hour Line
Part of the problem is how the American employment system defines full-time work for purposes of health insurance.
Under the Affordable Care Act, an applicable large employer generally has to offer affordable, minimum-value health coverage to its full-time employees and their dependents.
For this purpose, the federal definition of a full-time employee is generally someone averaging at least 30 hours per week or 130 hours per month. IRS — Identifying full-time employees under the ACA
That doesn’t mean every employer is legally required to provide health insurance to every employee working fewer than 30 hours.
In fact, the IRS specifically says that an applicable large employer does not have to offer minimum essential coverage to part-time employees to avoid the ACA employer responsibility payment. IRS — Questions and answers on employer shared responsibility provisions
And that’s where things get interesting.
Because thirty hours a week doesn’t feel like nothing.
That’s a substantial amount of work.
But someone working below the employer’s benefits threshold can still find themselves without the same benefits as someone working a few more hours.
The result can be degrading to someone that is working most of a normal workweek but still doesn’t have the security people associate with having a full-time job.
The Numbers Back This Up
This isn’t just something I experienced.
According to KFF’s 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey, only 27% of firms with 200 or more workers that offer health benefits also offer those benefits to part-time workers.
KFF also found that many employers offering health insurance don’t make it available to part-time or temporary employees.
In 2025, only about 80% of workers at firms offering health benefits were eligible to enroll in their employer’s plan.
And KFF’s research shows that employer-sponsored coverage is substantially less accessible to part-time workers than full-time workers. KFF — Part-Time Workers Have Less Access to Employer-Based Coverage Than Full-Time Workers
That’s a pretty significant difference.
You can work.
You can earn a paycheck.
You can pay taxes.
You can help the company make money.
And you can still be much less likely to have health insurance through that job.
Then There Are Seasonal Workers
This is another part of the system that doesn’t get enough attention.
Seasonal workers.
And there’s something insulting about being told that you’re an employee when the company needs you…
But somehow you’re not quite an employee when it comes to the benefits.
My current seasonal job is a good example.
I’m working a six-month season.
That means I’m working for a substantial portion of the year.
But because I’m seasonal, I don’t receive the same benefits that a permanent employee would receive.
I don’t get sick time.
I’m expected to work Christmas and other major holidays if I want to receive pay the holiday associated with them. You don’t really have a choice in the matter sometimes if no one from the full time employees are working you can’t because nobody is coming in on Thanksgiving or the Friday after. That is two days you lose out on.
And I’m not even included in the company’s holiday parties.
It starts feeling like it’s personally offensive.
You’re important enough to work the holidays…
Sarcasm Intended there.
But not necessarily important enough to be included in everything else.
You’re expected to be loyal to the company and be there to to do the bulk of the work, I have sat through compliance training every year at the start of my season and everything is about protecting the company’s assets and image but when it comes to you you’re on your own.
You take the job anyway.
Because you need a job.
And…
The company needs the labor.
The customer needs the service.
The work still has to get done.
But the we’re still remaining outside the benefits structure.
And that’s the part I think people need to understand.
Seasonal employment isn’t necessarily a few weeks of work.
For some people, it’s how they survive.
There’s no protection for us from the company treating us this way.
The IRS specifically recognizes seasonal workers as a distinct category under the ACA employer rules, including special rules for employers whose workforce expands temporarily with seasonal employees. IRS — Seasonal workers and applicable large employer rules
Seasonal Doesn’t Mean the Bills Are Seasonal
My rent isn’t seasonal.
My electricity bill isn’t seasonal.
My car insurance isn’t seasonal.
My groceries aren’t seasonal.
My healthcare needs certainly aren’t seasonal.
But my employment can be.
That’s a problem.
If you’re working six months out of the year, you still have twelve months of expenses.
And if you don’t receive benefits during those six months, you have to figure out how to provide those benefits for yourself.
Health insurance.
Dental care.
Vision care.
Retirement savings.
Paid time off.
Emergency savings.
Everything.
And if you’re already living paycheck to paycheck, where exactly is that money supposed to come from?
Working Without Sick Time
One of the things I find particularly frustrating is sick time.
Getting sick doesn’t stop being expensive because you’re a seasonal worker.
Your body doesn’t know what your employment classification is.
You can get the flu.
You can get injured.
You can need a doctor’s appointment.
You can have a family emergency.
But if you don’t have paid sick time, taking that day off can mean losing income.
For someone living paycheck to paycheck, that can create a difficult choice:
Do I stay home because I’m sick, or do I go to work because I can’t afford not to?
That’s not really much of a choice.
I have worked with Covid-19, I have worked from a hospital bed after having a stroke.
The Benefits Gap
The problem goes beyond healthcare.
There are many benefits that people don’t think about until they don’t have them.
Paid vacation.
Paid holidays.
Paid sick leave.
Retirement contributions.
Employer-matched retirement savings.
Disability insurance.
Life insurance.
Dental insurance.
Vision insurance.
Tuition assistance.
Employee discounts.
Bonuses.
Paid parental leave.
And other benefits that can have real monetary value.
When you’re comparing two jobs, it’s easy to look at the hourly wage and say:
“This job pays more.”
I will use an example one of mine. I am paid $31 per hour, for six months the math when break it down per hour it’s about 15.50 per hour annually before taxes after taxes you’re looking just about $11 per hour. Before my pay was cut I was making $26 roughly and over $20 per hour take home. I was considered middle class even working only a ten month season. Now I am right around poor and lower class because of one corporate cut. Now I am going to not be able for unemployment either next year.
But what if the higher-paying job doesn’t provide health insurance?
I would still take the higher paying job because I have nothing offered anyway.
What if there is no retirement match?
I can’t afford retirement.
What if you don’t get paid vacation?
I am not getting paid vacation time.
What if you don’t get sick time?
Like I have said previously I worked sick and in the hospital after a stroke.
What if you’re seasonal and your employment ends after six months?
I also just said that the numbers annually aren’t any good and you might be better off with the full-time job.
That higher hourly wage might not actually leave you better off.
More money per hour doesn’t translate to bigger salary, but a bigger salary can give you the option to get your own healthcare, save for retirement, etc.
KFF’s 2025 survey found that the average annual premium for employer-sponsored family coverage was $26,993, with workers contributing an average of $6,850 toward family coverage. KFF — 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey
That gives you an idea of how much value health insurance can represent when comparing jobs.
Sometimes the Raise Isn’t Really a Raise
I’ve also seen another side of this.
Sometimes companies raise the hourly wage…
And then cut the number of hours employees receive.
On paper, the employee got a raise.
In reality, the employee may have received less money.
Imagine someone working forty hours a week at $15 an hour.
That’s $600 before taxes.
Now the company raises their wage to $17 an hour.
That sounds good.
But if their hours are reduced to thirty…
They’re now making $510.
The hourly wage went up.
The paycheck went down.
And if benefits are tied to hours worked, the situation can become even more complicated.
That’s why I think we need to stop looking at wages in isolation.
Hours matter.
Benefits matter.
Stability matters.
The Working Poor
The idea that someone can work and still be poor isn’t theoretical.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — A Profile of the Working Poor, 2023 reported that 6.1 million people were classified as working poor in 2023.
Among people who were in the labor force for at least 27 weeks, the working-poor rate was 3.8%.
But the difference between full-time and part-time workers was significant.
The working-poor rate was 2.4% for people who usually worked full time, compared with 9.4% for those who usually worked part time.
That’s nearly four times the rate.
And BLS identifies low earnings, periods of unemployment, and involuntary part-time employment as major labor-market problems that can prevent workers from earning enough to stay above the poverty threshold.
So when someone says:
“At least they have a job.”
That’s not necessarily the end of the conversation.
So, we shouldn’t be hearing that we’re not good with money.
We should be pondering something else.
Maybe…
The better question is:
What kind of job?
How many hours?
What does it pay?
Is the schedule stable?
Does it provide benefits?
Can the worker afford healthcare?
Can they take a sick day?
Can they save for retirement?
Can they survive an emergency?
Maybe we should ask companies why they don’t care about their employees.
When Workers Need Public Assistance
This brings me to something else that I think deserves more attention.
Workers who need public assistance.
There are people working jobs who still qualify for programs such as SNAP, Medicaid, housing assistance, or other forms of support.
We need to stop thinking that the poor person is lazy if they’re working two jobs and still trying to decide whether to pay bill, rent, or eat because that’s the real problem.
That doesn’t necessarily mean someone is lazy.
It can mean that the combination of wages, hours, household size, housing costs, healthcare costs, and other expenses simply doesn’t provide enough income.
The Census Bureau tracks poverty and participation in means-tested assistance programs among working households, and its data show that employment and economic security are not the same thing.
The government safety net exists partly because work alone doesn’t always keep people above the poverty line.
And there’s something uncomfortable about that.
We tell people:
“Get a job.”
Then they get one.
And sometimes that job still isn’t enough.
We still as a society degrade them no matter how much effort they are putting in.
Then we glorify the parasite executive class or shareholders who haven’t had to work a hard days work and they contribute the least to our country in particular.
The funniest and saddest part of all of this still have taxes taken out some for the very benefits they are forced to use. Which is more than the companies who employ them.
Working and Still Needing Assistance
This is where I think the conversation gets even more interesting.
Because we’re not just talking about people who aren’t working.
We’re talking about people who are working.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report in 2026 looking specifically at working adults enrolled in Medicaid and adults living in households receiving SNAP benefits.
According to the GAO, an estimated 13.8 million adults enrolled in Medicaid worked at some point during 2024.
Another 10.6 million adults living in households receiving SNAP benefits worked during 2024.
And this is important:
About two-thirds of the working adults in both programs worked full-time hours, defined by GAO as 35 or more hours per week. U.S. Government Accountability Office — Federal Social Safety Net Programs: Millions of Workers, Including Many Employed by Large Employers, Continue to Rely on Medicaid and SNAP
That means we’re not talking exclusively about people working a few hours a week.
We’re talking about millions of people who are working.
And the GAO found that 88% of wage-earning adults enrolled in Medicaid or receiving SNAP were employed in the private sector.
The workers were heavily concentrated in industries such as education, health care and social services, accommodation and food services, retail, professional and administrative services, and manufacturing.
The largest occupational groups included transportation and material moving, food preparation and serving, sales, office and administrative support, and health care support. GAO — 2026 report on working Medicaid and SNAP recipients
And here’s the part that really caught my attention.
The GAO also looked at who these people worked for.
In September 2025, the GAO collected employer data from 15 state agencies covering 11 states.
The employers with the largest numbers of Medicaid enrollees and SNAP recipients varied from state to state.
But 46 companies appeared among the top 25 employers in at least two states.
Seventeen of those companies were among the 50 largest Fortune 500 companies by number of employees. GAO — Employer data for working Medicaid and SNAP recipients
Take a good look at the companies These are the companies that should be getting the snide comments and sideways looks from people.
Some of the companies appearing repeatedly in the GAO data included:
Walmart.
Amazon.
McDonald’s.
Dollar General.
FedEx.
Dollar Tree.
Goodwill.
And others.
For example, in Oklahoma, the GAO estimated that approximately 4,684 non-disabled, non-elderly working adult Medicaid enrollees worked for Walmart, while approximately 2,697 worked for Amazon. (GAO — 2026 report)
In Georgia, the GAO estimated that approximately 2,174 adult SNAP recipients worked for Walmart and 1,470 worked for Amazon in September 2025. (GAO — 2026 report)
In Tennessee, the estimates included approximately 3,513 SNAP recipients working for Walmart, 3,101 working for Amazon, 1,865 working for McDonald’s, and 2,499 working for FedEx. (GAO — 2026 report)
And in one state-level dataset, the GAO also identified companies such as Dollar General, Kroger, Dollar Tree, Wendy’s, Home Depot, Walgreens, Target, Tyson Foods, and UPS among employers of working SNAP or Medicaid recipients. (GAO — 2026 report)
Now, I want to be very clear about something.
This does not mean these companies are responsible for every person who receives Medicaid or SNAP.
Because there are other economic conditions to consider which is a discussion for another day.
It also doesn’t mean that every employee at these companies needs public assistance. That being said there’s a big difference of the person in the field and the corporate employee.
The GAO itself warns that its employer data came from 11 states and isn’t generalizable to the entire country.
And a company with hundreds of thousands or millions of employees will naturally have more employees receiving public assistance simply because it has so many workers.
But I think the larger point is still important.
Working and needing assistance are not mutually exclusive.
The government tells people to work.
Millions of people are working.
And millions of those workers still need programs designed to help low-income Americans afford food or healthcare.
That’s not an argument that every company should provide every benefit imaginable.
But it does raise a question.
If someone can work full-time for a major employer and still qualify for Medicaid or SNAP, is the problem really that they aren’t working?
Or is the problem that the income and benefits attached to the work aren’t enough?
And that’s where this conversation gets uncomfortable.
Because when workers need public assistance to survive…
Someone is still paying for that assistance.
The worker pays taxes.
The employer pays taxes.
Other taxpayers pay taxes.
And the government administers the programs.
So when a person works full-time but still can’t afford basic necessities…
We should probably stop treating that as simply an individual failure.
Maybe we should start asking what the job itself is actually providing.
Maybe we should ask why wages aren’t keeping up with inflation.
Because having a job and being financially secure are two very different things.
The Medicaid Connection
This is particularly obvious when you look at Medicaid.
KFF’s research on working adults enrolled in Medicaid found that part-time workers are less likely to be eligible for job-based health insurance than full-time workers. KFF — Medicaid Workers and Job-Based Insurance: Who Is Offered, Eligible, and Enrolled?
KFF found that among adult Medicaid workers, 21% of part-time workers were eligible for employer-sponsored coverage compared with 42% of full-time workers.
KFF also found that nearly two-thirds of adult Medicaid workers in expansion states and Wisconsin either worked for an employer that did not offer health coverage or were not eligible for the coverage offered.
That means there are workers who are doing exactly what society tells them to do.
They’re working.
They’re earning money.
They’re contributing to the economy.
And they still need Medicaid because their job doesn’t provide adequate access to employer-sponsored insurance.
That’s not necessarily a failure of the worker.
It can be a failure of the system surrounding the worker.
That’s a failure of American society as a whole.
Why Employers Use Different Classifications
There can be legitimate reasons companies use part-time and seasonal workers.
Businesses have busy seasons.
Retailers need more employees around the holidays.
Restaurants have changing demands.
Tourism is seasonal.
Agriculture is seasonal.
Some workers genuinely prefer part-time schedules.
Not every employer is trying to exploit anyone.
They are trying to spend less overall.
But the system creates an incentive to structure employment differently depending on what benefits and obligations come with each classification.
The ACA itself recognizes seasonal workers as a special category for determining whether an employer qualifies as an applicable large employer. Under the rules, an employer whose workforce exceeds 50 full-time employees for 120 days or fewer may qualify for an exception when the employees above that threshold are seasonal workers. IRS — Determining if an employer is an applicable large employer
That doesn’t mean companies are automatically doing anything wrong.
Legally they aren’t doing anything wrong. I think that is the keyword “legally”, Morally is a different story.
But it does demonstrate that employment classifications matter financially.
And workers need to understand those classifications because they can affect what they receive from the job.
Employers need to be transparent, they won’t do that because it makes them look bad from a public relations standpoint.
You’re Still Working
This is the part I think gets lost.
A seasonal worker still has bills.
A part-time worker still gets sick.
A part-time worker still needs healthcare.
A seasonal worker still needs a car to get to work.
A seasonal worker still needs somewhere to live.
A part-time worker still needs to save for retirement.
The expenses don’t become part-time.
Only the paycheck does.
And that’s one of the biggest problems with the way we talk about employment.
We tend to divide people into two categories:
Employed.
Unemployed.
But there is a massive space in between.
People who are employed but underpaid.
People who are employed but under-scheduled.
People who are employed but uninsured.
People who are employed but have no paid sick time.
People who are employed but have no retirement plan.
People who are employed but still need public assistance.
People who are employed six months a year.
People who technically have a job but don’t have the stability that most people associate with employment.
The Hidden Cost of Part-Time and Seasonal Work
This is why I think the title of this article matters.
The Hidden Cost of Part-Time and Seasonal Work.
The cost isn’t just the hourly wage.
It’s everything that comes with not having the benefits and stability associated with traditional full-time employment.
It’s the doctor’s appointment you can’t afford to miss work for.
It’s the vacation you can’t afford to take.
It’s the retirement contribution you aren’t making or receiving.
It’s the health insurance you have to find somewhere else.
It’s the emergency fund you can’t build because your hours fluctuate.
It’s the months when the season ends and you’re trying to figure out what comes next.
And it’s the uncertainty.
That’s something people don’t always put a dollar amount on.
Working Without a Safety Net
That’s ultimately what this is about.
Working without a safety net.
A job should provide more than just enough money to survive until the next paycheck.
At least, that’s what I think.
I’m not saying every job needs to provide every benefit imaginable.
I’m not saying part-time work shouldn’t exist.
I’m not saying seasonal employment shouldn’t exist.
I am saying that someone who works at a place for more than three months isn’t seasonal, the current rules are not made for the working class.
And I’m certainly not saying that every company that uses these classifications is doing something wrong, it’s just legal. If they are using it for cheaper labor cost it’s morally wrong.
But I do think we need to be honest about what these jobs mean for the people doing them.
Because if someone works thirty hours a week…
And doesn’t receive health insurance…
If someone works six months a year…
And doesn’t receive the same benefits as permanent employees…
If someone gets a raise…
But loses hours…
If someone works hard…
And still needs public assistance…
Then there’s the stress caused by all of this, it causes health problems. Shortens your life span.
Then we have to ask a bigger question.
What exactly are we calling a good job anymore?
My Experience
I’ve spent a large part of my life working.
I’ve worked full-time.
I’ve worked part-time.
I’ve worked seasonally.
I’ve worked in warehouses.
Call centers.
Returns departments.
IT.
And other jobs.
I’ve experienced what it’s like to have stable employment.
And I’ve experienced what it’s like when that stability disappears.
Now I’m working seasonally again.
And I understand why companies use seasonal employees.
I also understand that they don’t care.
But I also understand what it feels like to be on the other side of that classification.
You’re expected to show up.
You’re expected to work.
You’re expected to perform just as hard or harder.
You’re expected to work Christmas.
You’re expected to work the holidays.
But you’re still considered temporary.
You’re still outside certain benefits.
And when the season ends…
You have to figure out what comes next.
That’s not an abstract economic discussion for me.
That’s my life.
What Do You Think?
Have you worked part-time because you couldn’t find full-time work?
Have you worked somewhere that kept employees under a certain number of hours?
Have you worked seasonally without health insurance or paid sick time?
Have you ever received a raise only to have your hours cut?
Have you ever worked a job where you still needed public assistance to make ends meet?
I’d genuinely like to hear your experience.
Because I don’t think these stories should be treated as individual failures.
They’re part of a much larger conversation about what work is supposed to provide.
A job shouldn’t just give you something to do.
It should give you a reasonable opportunity to build a life.
And if millions of people are working without the basic benefits that provide stability…
Maybe it’s time we started asking whether the problem is the worker.
Or whether the system of work itself is broken.
About The Exploited Worker 138
The Exploited Worker 138 is an independent publication exploring work, layoffs, unemployment, artificial intelligence, automation, the economy, technology, and what it means to rebuild in a changing world.
The goal isn’t to pretend we have all the answers.
It’s to have the conversations that often don’t happen until after the job is gone.
Starting Over in a Broken System.