Research and Trends

For the third consecutive year, ComplyRight surveyed owners, CEOs and other professionals responsible for HR and administrative tasks at 300 small businesses (five to 100 employees) nationwide.

Among the key findings of the 2019 National Small Business Compliance Survey:

• Only about one in four businesses is “very confident” in their full awareness of employment laws and regulations at the federal (23%), state (26%) and city/county (29%) levels – a decline from previous years.
• From 2018 to 2019, there was a jump in participants expressing a high level of concern about “legally hiring or firing employees,” with one out of five employers highlighting “new limitations on what you can ask a job candidate” as their top HR concern.
• Barely half (48%) of small businesses are “very confident” they are well-prepared to handle investigations or legal actions related to labor law compliance.
• In a new topic for the 2019 survey … One in five (20%) small business employers report an increased level of concern about harassment in their workplaces, which more than doubles (to 41%) among employers with at least 20 employees.

Want to learn more? Download the full Executive Summary for a closer look at how small businesses perceive (and respond to) today’s complex and always-evolving employment laws and trends.