Part-time workers, however, will be the hardest hit--a point on which even task force members agree.

"The fact that the University's contributions will be pro-rated is going to be difficult for them," Candace R. Corvey, associate vice president for human resources, said in July.

Harvard will pay 60 percent for part-timers earning less than $45,000, 55 percent for those earning between $45,000 and $70,000 and 50 percent for those earning more than $70,000.

The Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW) last week released an open letter to the Harvard Community criticizing the impending changes which will affect part-time employees.

"Although HUCTW members are not immediately affected, we are concerned about this particular change, and the thousands of Harvard family members who will be touched by it," the letter says.

The union says that increases in health care premiums and co-payments for part-times could force employees to choose less expensive child care, increase their hours, go uninsured or even leave the University.

One HUCTW member working in an administrative office says she is contemplating that choice between work and family.

"One of the things for me that is an issue is that I'm pregnant," she says. "I'm looking at going down to part-time. The amount of money that a part-timer has to put out for health insurance is quite a bit."

Her husband is self-employed, and her job is the family's only source of health insurance. She belongs to the HealthFlex Blue family plan, and her premiums are now $127 a month.

"I'm a diabetic," she says. "My health is very important to me. I do pay the most expensive premium."

If she went down to part-time, and the union accepted the changes, she would pay $183 a month.

She says she and her husband have discussed the possibility of her leaving her job after the baby is born.

"We'd have to bite the bullet and pay out on our own plan. It's essentially the same as paying your own insurance when you combine [the cost of day care and health insurance," she says. "It's something we're definitely looking at."

"But I love my job," she says. "It's important to have something of your own outside raising a child."

The full-time cut-off will be 28 hours a week. Employees who work between 17.5 hours and 28 hours will be affected by the new part-time contributions.

According to the report, the 17.5 hours cutoff is lower than that of several area employers, such as Polaroid and the Bank of Boston, and that of all Ivy League schools except Brown.