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I'm not defending the practices of small businesses but a couple things to note here that make it particularly difficult for a small business to provide insuran

by meritt 10y ago

I'm not defending the practices of small businesses but a couple things to note here that make it particularly difficult for a small business to provide insurance and not violate the law: 1) Group health insurance plans tend to have a significant upfront cost and it's extremely expensive per-employee with a small company. Larger companies get better plans and can pay significantly less per-employee. The SHOP [1] plans out there aren't even implemented yet in many states. 2) A logical option that many businesses wanted to do was simply reimburse employees the full cost of their individual health care premiums. It seemed like a good bridge between ensuring they have coverage without getting into the extremely expensive weeds of group plans. But for some absurd reason/loophole, that's actually illegal. And there's a $100/day ($36,500/yr) per employee fine if you reimburse employees for health insurance. [2] [1] https://www.healthcare.gov/small-businesses/employers/ https://www.healthcare.gov/small-businesses/employers/ [2] https://www.irs.gov/affordable-care-act/employer-health-care-arrangements https://www.irs.gov/affordable-care-act/employer-health-care... Question #1.

amyjess 10y ago
First, I once worked for a small business, with 12 employees, that was a defense contractor and as such was obligated to provide insurance. Their insurance was the cheapest I've ever had ($40 per month) and had the best coverage I've ever had. It's why the only small businesses I will ever work for again will be defense contractors. Second, I live in Texas. PPOs are no longer offered on the private exchanges here. Unless you have employer-provided insurance, you have to have an HMO, which I refuse to do for moral reasons. Even if it was legal, I wouldn't work at any company whose sole insurance option is to reimburse employees for the cost of individual plans because individual plans are not an option here. This is simply the result of stingy, greedy owners trying to keep everything for themselves. The company I worked at before the defense contractor was about the same size, but not only did they not provide benefits, but they provided laughably low salaries (I was making $47k/year when recruiters were telling me I should be making $60-65k, and the defense contractor I jumped ship to paid me $65k), refused to provide any equity to anyone except to maybe the first two technical hires, and refused to seek any investment above the angel level because the owner wanted to keep ownership for himself. If a business cannot afford to properly compensate their employees, they should not be in business. Period. Size isn't an excuse. And that means the <50-employee exception needs to go. And so does the <15-employee exception for EEOC (and some cities, including my own, have the same exception for their local non-discrimination laws). If you're a small business, you should have three options: 1) offer full benefits and pay a competitive salary, 2) treat your staff as co-founders and give us both equity and public recognition as co-founders, or 3) you close your doors.

by meritt 10y ago

amyjess 10y ago

First, I once worked for a small business, with 12 employees, that was a defense contractor and as such was obligated to provide insurance. Their insurance was the cheapest I've ever had ($40 per month) and had the best coverage I've ever had. It's why the only small businesses I will ever work for again will be defense contractors. Second, I live in Texas. PPOs are no longer offered on the private exchanges here. Unless you have employer-provided insurance, you have to have an HMO, which I refuse to do for moral reasons. Even if it was legal, I wouldn't work at any company whose sole insurance option is to reimburse employees for the cost of individual plans because individual plans are not an option here. This is simply the result of stingy, greedy owners trying to keep everything for themselves. The company I worked at before the defense contractor was about the same size, but not only did they not provide benefits, but they provided laughably low salaries (I was making $47k/year when recruiters were telling me I should be making $60-65k, and the defense contractor I jumped ship to paid me $65k), refused to provide any equity to anyone except to maybe the first two technical hires, and refused to seek any investment above the angel level because the owner wanted to keep ownership for himself. If a business cannot afford to properly compensate their employees, they should not be in business. Period. Size isn't an excuse. And that means the <50-employee exception needs to go. And so does the <15-employee exception for EEOC (and some cities, including my own, have the same exception for their local non-discrimination laws). If you're a small business, you should have three options: 1) offer full benefits and pay a competitive salary, 2) treat your staff as co-founders and give us both equity and public recognition as co-founders, or 3) you close your doors.