A Real Life Lesson In Operational Definitions

Small Business Faces Big Bite - WSJ.com:

"...employers with payrolls exceeding $400,000 a year would have to provide health insurance or pay the 8% penalty. Employers with payrolls between $250,000 and $400,000 a year would pay a smaller penalty, and those less than $250,000 would be exempt. Certain small firms would get tax credits to help buy coverage."

As the politicians go back and forth on trying to protect "small busineses" in the healthcare coverage debate, I sat and wondered what exactly a "small business" was. Was it a mom-and-pop store with a few full-time employees, typically family, and low-paid part-timers? Was it a 250-employee private asset management firm? Heck, was it a couple of guys teaming together to offer performance measurement and GIPS expertise?

Well, the House majority answered the question, and the POTUS supported it today in his public encouragement to pass the bill. A small business, operationally defined by the House of Representatives, is one with a payroll less than $250,000.

Looks like a mom-and-pop store can have 16.5 full-time employees at the soon-to-be minimum wage of $7.25. If it doesn't exist right now, it will soon - a way for the mom-and-pop owners to pay themselves minimum wage whilst reaping the reward for the risk-taking inherent in owning and operating a business.

As for the two-man team offering performance measurement and GIPS expertise....