In an effort to avoid some of the strictures resulting from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, more business owners are implementing various strategies that may prevent them from some of the law's most stringent mandates.
According to BenefitsPro, one of these strategies involves business owners who share workers, such as independent contractors. This enables them to take advantage of the positives of hiring extra help without having to consider them as official employees.
As most business owners may be aware, employee benefits must be made available by companies if at least 50 employees are on the payroll.
Meanwhile some companies are making due with less by shrinking the variety of services and goods rendered as well as maintaining a smaller employee base.
"Folks are concerned about the sustainability of their business," Kevin Kuhlman, who heads legislative affairs for the Washington, D.C.-based National Federation of Independent Businesses, told BenefitsPro. "Some might try to survive by atrophy, which isn't a great approach, or try to find ways to be more productive with fewer employees."
Small business owners aren't optimistic about increasing their staff levels any time soon. In fact, they may be laying off people at a faster rate than they hire. In a recent WellsFargo/Gallup Small Business Index Survey, only 11 percent of small business owners said that the number of net jobs they had rose over the past year. Additionally, 23 percent say that there are now fewer jobs available with their company than there were 12 months ago.
When asked to describe some of the specific reasons why employees had been let go, roughly 20 percent said it was because of the costs associated with the ACA.
