I’ve talked about regulatory compliance costs before but… wow. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) just released the results of their study on the macroeconomic impact of federal regulations. It’s very sobering. The average cost per employee per year is nearly $10,000. But the average cost for small business is a whopping $34,671 PER EMPLOYEE PER YEAR! Given the lack of scale advantages, the burden of compliance for small business is back-breaking. You can get the Executive Summary here or the Full Report here.
I realize regulations are often an unfortunate necessity. But I’m for a level playing field, too, and the cost of regulatory compliance for small business is unfair. We need more than regulatory reform in the conventional sense. We need transformation to get regulatory fairness.
Source: National Association of Manufacturers, The Cost of Federal Regulation to the U.S. Economy, Manufacturing, and Small Business (Executive Summary).
