A trio of challenges out of Washington confront higher ed administrators with regard to our lower-level employees

The term "Perfect Storm," since it entered the American language following the book and film of that name some 16 years ago (and referring to three weather patterns coming together to create the ultimate blow up), has been way overused and abused.

But the term fits our current situation perfectly.  Three forces --- not from three directions but all out of Washington --- have combined to make managing the hours and compensation of our part-timers and lower-level administrators very difficult indeed.

The first is the definition of full-time for purposes of healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act.  Thirty hours a week is all it takes to meet that definition, although 35-40 hours is the range of full-time employment we are all used to seeing.  This raises a particularly ambiguous issue with regard to adjunct faculty members, who may spend unspecified and uneven amounts of time prepping for classes.

Second is the NLRB's flip-flop last week in the Columbia University case in which the Board majority reverted to the NYU decision of 16 years ago in which the agency had held for the first time that GAs and TAs are primarily employees.

Number three is the set of new regulations regarding exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act.  Executives, administrators and professionals, if they are to be exempt from the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the FLSA, had to receive an annual salary in the neighborhood of $23,000 minimally.  That now jumps to $47,000.  The result is that many coaches, admissions counselors and other low-level professional employees in higher education must either have their salaries increased or begin keeping time sheets in anticipation of receiving time-and-a-half for all hours over 40 worked in a week.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education,  "Colleges are worried about how to cover the costs of overtime pay that dozens of coaches, counselors, and other employees may soon become entitled to under a new federal rule designed to ensure they're paid equitably."

I have yet to meet anyone in higher ed who is planning to vote for Trump.  I, too, will cast my vote for Mrs. Clinton.  But I confess to bending a bit under the weight of the regulatory activity that has come out of the eight years of the Obama Administration.  This trio of labor and employment developments is only the latest in a long line.  Particularly as we in the private sector of the higher education industry struggle with enrollment and budgetary challenges, a little easing of the pressure from the federal bureaucracy would not be unwelcome.