Matthew Butcher
James Jenkins
MBA-610-Q5442 Business Law
July 25, 2015

While reviewing the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission’s website, a broad principle quickly become clear. The laws governing businesses of different sizes can greatly vary due to the potential impact that laws can have on smaller businesses. The EEOC defines a small business as one that has 500 or less employees. However, the resources of a company with 400 employees has access to can greatly differ from a company that has ten. The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) allows agencies to potentially scale back certain regulatory rules in certain situations to protect small businesses from being devastated by laws that large businesses would have to abide by. According to the EEOC website, the RFA “requires agencies to consider the impact of their rules on small entities and to evaluate alternatives that would accomplish the objectives of the rule without unduly burdening small entities when the rules impose a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. Inherent in the RFA is Congress' desire to remove barriers to competition and encourage agencies to consider ways of tailoring regulations to the size of the regulated entities.” What this basically means is that agencies can tailor their rules regarding equal opportunity employment so that the laws governing will not economically cripple a small business. In cases like these, the RFA comes into play. According to the EEOC, only businesses employed by more than fifteen people for at least twenty weeks in a calendar year are subject to the general coverage of the EEOC in relation to race, sex and/or pregnancy, color, national origin, or disability. These types of violations are related to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In regards to age discrimination, equal opportunity coverage is up to 20 or more employees employed for at least twenty weeks in a calendar year. All employers, large or small, are covered in regards to the Equal Pay Act (EPA), which makes it illegal to pay different wages to a man or woman for performing equal work. Prior to researching this topic, I had no knowledge regarding different rules for large and small businesses. However, I am not surprised by this fact as these rules make sense. Businesses of different sizes need to be governed differently. For example, a small business of maybe 15 people will most likely not be sophisticated enough to sustain a long term pregnancy leave or a discrimination lawsuit that a Fortune 500 company can deal with. Larger companies will have a human resource departments that contain highly trained employees who are up to date with anti-discrimination laws. These companies will also have a team of legal counsel that can be used to protect the company against lawsuits and violations. Unfortunately, smaller businesses will not have the resources available for these types of scenarios. Some businesses are so small, that it would be impossible for them not to discriminate against other people in a certain point of view. If a white man owns a repair garage and only employs three other white, male mechanics, is he discriminating against other demographics? Most likely not, which is why there are minimum requirements for businesses to abide by antidiscrimination laws. Small businesses need to be treated differently than large businesses. The laws governing large business would literally destroy any potential for a small business to become successful due to the immense number of regulations surrounding equal opportunity. The legal fees alone in a case like that would financially cripple a small business. This could directly make larger businesses that much stronger as any potential competitor could be muscled out based on labor and equal opportunity laws. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, small businesses accounted for 99.7 percent of U.S. employer firms in the U.S., and businesses with less than 20 workers made up 89.8 percent. Small businesses are such a large part of our economy, so it is the EEOC’s responsibility to scale its regulations of these businesses to encourage success. Without this exception, people may think twice before deciding to open up their own corner store.

Works Cited
Q&A: EEOC COMMISSIONER BARKER EXPLAINS THE NEED FOR A SMALL BUSINESS TASK FORCE (2012, January 17) http://www.bna.com/qa-eeoc-commissioner-b12884907284/ http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/publications/smallbusiness.cfm http://www1.eeoc.gov//eeoc/plan/regflexibilityact.cfm?renderforprint=1
http://www.sbecouncil.org/about-us/facts-and-data/