What are the Costs for Non-Compliance?

I listen to small business owners every day telling me that they don’t have any regulatory problems, the regulations don’t apply to them or that they will never get caught. Yet, I read, every day, about entrepreneurs being put out of business because of regulatory violations.

Here are a few examples:

According to Small Business California.org

“In California, the chances of getting busted are growing as the state cracks down on businesses that wrongly claim employees are independent contractors and, as a result, not subject to a slew of taxes and labor laws.

The number of state audits and investigations of businesses climbed to 5,706 in the fiscal year ended June 30, up 54% over three years, according to state data.

About half of those checked resulted in misclassification penalties, the data showed. Last year, the state collected back charges and fines of $163.6 million, up 30.4 %”.

According to Safety Services Company.com:

The top OSHA violations are:

#10 - Hazard Communications

Number of Inspections: 623
Number of Citations: 1311
Total Amount Fined: $175,265.00
Average Fine: $281.00

#9 - Training

Number of Inspections: 1488
Number of Citations: 1557
Total Amount Fined: $666,537.00

According to Brain Tree Payments Solutions.com:

• Since 2005, more than 80% of the credit card breaches have occurred at small businesses.
• Since October of 2006, $3.3 million in fines for non compliance have been levied.

According to Imperial Valley News:
The recent self-disclosure cases had potential penalties ranging from $8,700 to $459,000 for environmental violations that the agency determined caused no serious or actual harm to human health or the environment.

According to overlawyered.com:
Under the ADA businesses with fewer than 50 employees can lose no more than $50,000 in punitive damages. But, “the typical small business owner takes home less than $40,000 a year, so basically it means the business, the house, the car, and then some,” explains Wendy Lechner of the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

According to Business Management Daily.com
California’s posting requirements on workers’ comp are among the strictest in the nation. Employers must display a poster in a conspicuous place at the work site that shows their insurance carrier and detailed instructions for reporting and treating workplace injuries. If you fail to post the notice or post false information, you’re guilty of a misdemeanor that can result in a civil penalty of up to $7,000 per violation.

If you have no employees and think that you are exempt from regulations, think again. Gary Smith, State representative for the state of Washington told the Hispanic Times that,

For small-business owners who want to follow the rules, knowing the tax code is just the beginning. A simple business such as an auto repair shop has 38 sets of regulations from 18 federal, state and local agencies, said Gary Smith, executive director of the Independent Business Association of Washington State. Adding just one employee makes that number jump to 58 sets of rules by 28 agencies.


"The irony of all of this is that there is no single person in any level of government that knows all of the regulations a small-business owner is expected to comply with," Smith said. "Yet, government officials somehow expect small businesses to know all of them and how to comply; and if they don't, they cite them, they penalize them and they fine them."

The 38 sets of regulations from 18 agencies is for a sole business owner with 0 employees and these numbers were from 2007, before the latest jump in regulations with more being promised.

I have cited only one requirement out of many per agency and have only talked about 6 agencies rather than the 20 or 30 writing regulations.

These are only the penalties assessed by state or federal agencies. These figures don’t compare to the civil judgments businesses have been made to pay in addition to the regulatory fines.

Regulatory compliance is not optional and the chances of being investigated grow as the economy weakens. Find out what you need to do to comply with state and federal regulations and develop the systems that will protect what you are working for.

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