Middle market employers’ concerns about government regulations have grown dramatically, superseding their concerns about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – signed into law by President Obama in 2010 — and health care costs for the first time since the study’s inception in 2012.
While the ACA and health care are still among business owners’ top three concerns, levels of concern have leveled off in the latest survey, allowing worries over the amount of regulations to rise 36 percent since 2014.
This year’s ADP 2015 Midsized Business Owners Study found:
- 41 percent of business owners rank the volume of government regulations as their top concern.
- 34 percent say the cost of health care coverage is their top concern.
- 32 percent rank health care reform legislation as their top concern.
The annual study surveyed more than 700 business owners and executives at U.S. companies with 50 to 999 employees through an online survey. The findings suggest that as the reality of the ACA has taken hold, business owners are turning their focus to other issues, allowing concerns over employee engagement, talent management and tax compliance to emerge.
