An onslaught of federal regulation is chilling manufacturers’ ability to grow their businesses, hire new workers and boost wages, according to a coalition of over 130 manufacturing and business organizations, including NJBIA, that are calling for federal regulatory reforms.
In a letter to President Joe Biden’s Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, the Manufacturers for Sensible Regulations coalition, whose organizations represent thousands of U.S. businesses that collectively employ millions of Americans, said the cost of complying with regulations has become enormous.
“The federal regulatory barrage threatens our ability to continue growing and creating jobs and to compete on the global stage,” the coalition told Zients. “Manufacturers are committed to commonsense legal and regulatory reforms that ensure public health and safety, and we look forward to continuing working with you to find solutions that foster sensible regulations that support manufacturers’ continued job creation and economic competitiveness.”
While the average U.S. company pays $9,991 per employee per year to comply with federal regulations, the average manufacturer pays nearly double that – $19,563 per employee per year, the coalition said. Small manufacturers face an even higher disproportionate regulatory cost of $34,671 per employee per year, which is more than three times the cost to the average U.S. company, the coalition said, citing research done for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).
“President Biden has made strengthening the manufacturing sector a priority for his administration. Historic legislation like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, key energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act and the initial permitting reforms in the Fiscal Responsibility Act underscores the commitment that policymakers have made to our industry,” the coalition wrote.
“However, the onslaught of new regulations, some of which are previewed in the recently released Spring 2023 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, is chilling manufacturing investment, curtailing manufacturers’ ability to hire new workers and suppressing wage growth, especially for the small and medium-sized manufacturers that are the backbone of the supply chain.”
According to NAM’s Q2 2023 Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey, more than 63% of manufacturers report spending over 2,000 hours per year complying with federal regulations, and 17% spend more than 10,000 hours. This is time that cannot be spent on more productive business activities, and it expends resources that otherwise could go toward hiring, raises or capital investments, the coalition said.
“Regulations create tremendous uncertainty, which can stall or even prevent manufacturers from growing their workforce, purchasing equipment, conducting research and development and investing in their communities,” the coalition wrote. “This puts manufacturers in the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage with countries such as China, threatening America’s global leadership.”
The coalition requested that a senior level adviser in the Biden administration be designated to coordinate efforts within the White House to ensure that federal regulators are “implementing policies that align with the president’s promise to promote the growth of manufacturing in America.”
