NFIB has sent out two important regulation alerts that will have a direct impact on small business.
ADA Lawsuits
The first alert regards the practice of "drive-by" Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuits. In these cases, the claimants and their attorneys threaten small-business owners with expensive lawsuits rather than allow a small-business owner the opportunity to correct an alleged ADA violation. There is no intention to correct any problem for the disabled that may or may not exist under the ADA, but simply to to recover attorney's fees. In fact, it is not uncommon for these plaintiffs to file several suits a day claiming that numerous businesses discriminated against them on a single day.
"Small-business owners need to be warned of a potential ADA violation and given the opportunity to rectify the problem before they are dragged into court by professional claimants whose only concern is collecting attorney's fees, not creating access for the disabled," said Karen Harned executive director of NFIB's Legal Foundation. "Small-business owners often can't afford to defend themselves against potential ADA violations and are therefore forced to settle these claims. If they are first given notice and the opportunity to update their facility, access for the disabled can be achieved without dragging a business through a costly lawsuit."
The estimated total cost to California small-business owners of litigating these claims each year is $34 million ($5,000 for the defense plus $12,000 for plaintiffs' attorney's fees and damages, multiplied by 2,000 annual cases filed).
Required Health Insurance Coverage
The second alert is about the attempt to move to require universal health care coverage by all employers of all sizes through a back door maneuver called the "Fair Share Health Care Fund Act." This law requires employers with more than 10,000 employees to spend 8 percent of their total payroll costs on health insurance for their Maryland employees. This controversial law also became known as the "Wal-Mart bill" because the corporation is one of four Maryland employers directly affected by the law, but the only one that does not meet the 8 percent threshold.
So what does this have to do with small business?
Although the Maryland law only applies to large businesses, the proponents of this bill made it clear that they want to impose a payroll tax on small-business owners to establish a government-run health-care system in Maryland. In fact, legislation (HB 1510) has already been introduced in the Maryland General Assembly to mandate that ALL businesses with less than 10,000 employees provide health-care coverage for employees, or face a payroll tax. Similar bills have been introduced in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Washington, all with much lower employee thresholds.
"This has always been about forcing small-business owners to provide health insurance," said Karen Harned, executive director of NFIB's Legal Foundation. "However, the law does nothing to address the issue of access to affordable health care. Businesses that do not provide insurance do so for a reason; they can't afford to buy health insurance. To force a business to provide something their bottom line can't afford is bad for the economy, bad for job growth and is a violation of federal laws. If the court does not find the Maryland law to be in violation of ERISA law, the survival of small-business across the country will be in jeopardy."
