NFIB: New Study on Regulations Should Trigger Alarms in Washington
www.NFIB.com
For Immediate
Release
Contact: Jack Mozloom,
609-462-5610 or [email protected]
NFIB: New Study on Regulations Should Trigger Alarms in
Washington
Study
by manufacturers shows how regulations siphon capital from economy and hurt
small businesses
Washington, DC (September 10, 2014) — The National Federation of Independent Business
(NFIB) today said that a new study released
by a group representing American manufacturers should force Congress to get
serious about taming a regulatory system that is increasingly, and perhaps
prohibitively, expensive for small businesses.
“The
real cost on small manufacturers, and therefore the larger cost to the economy,
is staggering according to this research,” said Dan Bosch, NFIB Manager of Regulatory Policy. “The relationship between federal regulations
and economic policy is badly out of balance and it’s undermining everything
that the Administration and Congress say they want to accomplish.”
The
report, by the National Association of Manufacturers, finds that the average
American company with 50 or fewer employees pays nearly $12,000 to comply with
regulations. Remarkably, the average
small manufacturer (those with 50 or fewer workers), must pay nearly $35,000
per year, per employee to be in compliance.
“A
small manufacturing firm with 10 employees must spend $350,000 per year, before
they make a single dollar in profit, to comply with federal regulations,” said
Bosch. “That’s a massive barrier to
entry for small businesses and a powerful incentive to invest and create jobs
outside of the United States.”
President
Obama and every member of Congress claim as a central economic policy the
revitalization of the manufacturing sector, which has shed millions of jobs
over the past decade under withering pressure from overseas competitors whose
regulatory costs aren’t nearly as high.
That’s the right goal, said Bosch, because manufacturing jobs generally
pay more than service sector positions.
Clearly, though, that goal is undermined by the bewildering proliferation
of regulations and the costs they impose on small businesses.
“It’s
always been one of the main pathways to the middle class for Americans and the
federal regulatory bureaucracy is now blocking it,” he said. “We’re not going to have a serious jobs
policy, or a serious economic policy, unless we get serious about reigning in
the regulatory system.”
NFIB is
part of a coalition of organizations calling for sensible
regulations. Its
website provides research on the rules affecting small businesses and their
effect on the economy. For more
information about NFIB please visit www.nfib.com.
###
NFIB is the nation’s leading small
business advocacy association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50
state capitals. Founded in 1943 to give small-business owners a voice in public
policy-making, NFIB’s policy positions are set by its 350,000 business-owner
members, who send their views directly to state and federal lawmakers through
NFIB’s unique member-only ballot. NFIB’s mission is to promote and protect the
right of our members to own, operate and grow their businesses. More
information is available online at www.NFIB.com/news.
