ECONOMIC REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
-0.2
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
-1.0
Figure 4-16
Change in Share of After-Tax Income by Income Percentile: Changes in
Tax Policy Since 2009 and ACA Coverage Provisions, 2017
Change in Share of After-Tax Income (Percentage Points)
0-20 20-40 40-60 60-80 80-90 90-95 95-99 99-99.9 99.9-
100
Income Percentile
Source: U.S. Treasury, Office of Tax Analysis.
2016). Providing better coverage options outside the workplace may also
facilitate entrepreneurship (Fairlie, Kapur, and Gates 2011; DeCicca 2010);
enable workers to invest in additional years of education (Dillender 2014);
or give workers additional flexibility in structuring their work lives, such as
by retiring when it makes sense for them or reducing their work hours in
order to have more time to care for a family member (for example, Heim
and Lin 2016).
Fully understanding how the ACA’s coverage expansions have
affected the labor market will require additional research, but it is already
quite clear that predictions of large reductions in total employment and large
increases in part-time employment have not come to pass. Implementation
of the ACA has occurred alongside the steady recovery of the labor market
from the Great Recession, as illustrated in Figure 4-17. The private sector
started adding jobs in March 2010, the month the ACA became law,
and businesses have added a cumulative 15.6 million jobs since that time.
Private-sector employment has actually increased somewhat more quickly
since the ACA’s main coverage provisions took effect at the beginning of
2014 (around 209,000 jobs per month) than over the rest of the employment
expansion (around 181,000 jobs per month).
This time series evidence, particularly the fact that private-sector job
growth has actually been slightly faster after the ACA’s main coverage provisions
took effect than before they took effect, is sufficient to demonstrate
236 | Chapter 4