MADISON, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-Madison limited student work hours to 29 per week in an effort to comply with requirements of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

UW-Madison’s student labor leaders are sounding off about the decision they claim will make academics more difficult for many students by forcing them to take second jobs to support themselves, The Capital Times reports.

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“With less hours, many students will have to juggle two jobs, and that will definitely hurt academic success,” student worker Reid Kurkereiwicz said in a statement by the Student Labor Action Coalition.

UW-Madison capped student hours to comply with provisions of the Affordable Care Act that require large employers to provide health insurance to anyone who works an average of 30 hours per week or more. UW spokesman John Lucas told The Capital Times the university can’t offer group health insurance under state law.

“A large percentage of our students are covered under parent’s coverage or UW-Madison Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP), however this does not exempt UW from the ACA requirement to offer group health insurance coverage to students who average 30 hours per week or more,” Lucas said. “Therefore, UW must limit student working hours in order to be in compliance with the ACA.”

Lucas told The Badger Herald in July that less than 30 of the university’s 15,000 student employees worked an average of 30 hours or more per week last year.

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“There’s very few students that really were going to be affected by that or were going to be going over that maximum,” UW Housing spokesman Brendon Dybdahl told the news site. “I don’t think it’s going to be an issue for us as far as our staffing.”

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UW Housing is the biggest student employer within the university system.

Students have a different take on the impact of the cuts.

“What many people don’t realize is that UW’s limited term employee’s income will be reduced by as much as 25 percent, making it incredibly difficult to provide for themselves and their families,” SLAC member Luke Gangler said.

Lucas told The Capital Times UW officials are hoping that proposed federal legislation to change Obamacare requirements and exempt universities from the 30 hour rule may allow them to lift the cap in the future.

“UW-Madison is very concerned about the hours cutback required by this law as many of our students are dependent on these hours to assist with educational expenses,” he wrote in an email.

“There is currently an active student worker exemption bill that would exclude students who are employed by an institution of higher education and carrying a full-time academic workload from being counted as a full-time employee in calculating shared responsibility regarding health care coverage under the ACA,” Lucas said. “We are hopeful that there will soon be some momentum with this bill and changes made so that students will not be negatively impacted by this law.”