What Does Deregulation & Health Care Reform Mean for Your Business?

With every new presidential administration, there are always changes in rules, regulations and laws that can affect how businesses operate. The incoming Trump administration, for example, has promised sweeping reform to the Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA), as well as massive deregulation for businesses across the spectrum, both of which may leave businesses scrambling to comply with new rules.

Keep reading to learn what these regulatory changes might mean for your business and how you can adjust your operations in 2017.

Lower Taxes

One of the major talking points of the Trump campaign was a desire to lower the tax burden of businesses across the country. The idea behind this effort is that lower taxes for businesses will help them to have more resources to invest in jobs and equipment, resulting in economic expansion.

If President Trump’s tax plan is ultimately adopted, you can expect to see a top rate close to 15%.

Overtime Regulations

Just prior to this year’s election, President Obama was able to pass sweeping reform to the rules governing overtime pay. The new regulations raised the wage threshold at which employers would have to pay overtime to salaried employees. Previously, the number was $23,000 per year. The new regulations made it mandatory to pay overtime to employees making less than $47,000 per year.

A lawsuit challenging this federal regulation in Texas has come to the forefront. Because the new administration has stated its intentions to be the most business friendly administration in American history, most insiders believe that more challenges to these regulations will appear.

The outlook is that these regulations may be reversed in the future, allowing the threshold to drop back down to $23,000 per year.

Federal Minimum Wage

Talk of a $15 federal minimum wage has been one of the biggest hot button issues in recent memory. While the federal minimum wage rate has not been raised since 2009, and currently stands at $7.25 per hour, the Trump administration has expressed an interest in raising the number to $10 per hour.

Interestingly enough, the administration has slated fast-food executive Andy Puzder to head the department of labor. In the past, Puzder has been very outspoken about the damages that could be caused by raising the minimum raise, making it unclear whether plans will move forward to increase this number.

Changes to the federal minimum wage may see an uphill battle with the incoming administration.

Affordable Care Act

One of the most controversial provisions in the ACA was the mandate that small businesses must provide healthcare for their employees, which provided a heavy burden for many of these businesses. The regulation stipulated that any small business with more than 50 employees must provide health insurance. Regulations like this were seen to stagnate business growth as many small businesses cut staff and reduced hours in order to avoid compliance.

With the incoming administrations, outspoken desire to repeal and reform the ACA, this is one of the first provisions that is most likely to be addressed. Small businesses may see some relief from the healthcare mandate in the upcoming months.

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