A quarter of small-business owners plan to cut hiring to stay under 50 employees so they can avoid one of Obama-Care’s many onerous mandates. In other words, small businesses will be staying small.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which routinely appraises the small-business environment,found in its most recent quarterly survey of 1,300 executives that “the health care law has emerged as the top concern for small businesses.”
Nearly three-fourths (71%) told the Chamber that “the health care law makes it harder to hire.” And “only 30% say they’re prepared for the requirements of the law, including participation in the marketplaces, and one-quarter say they are unaware of what is required.”
Among small businesses that will be impacted by the employer mandate, half say they’ll either cut hours to reduce full-time employees or replace full-time employees with part-timers to avoid the mandate.
Meanwhile, almost a quarter (24%) say they’ll reduce hiring to stay under 50 employees.
Fifty is a key number. Under ObamaCare rules, any business with 50 or more full-time-equivalent workers has to provide them with health insurance coverage.
Noncompliance results in fines of $2,000 per employee, jumping to $3,000 for each employee who receives a health insurance tax credit and buys a plan through the federal insurance exchanges.