The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), a national trade association that represents primarily manufacturers but other employers as well, has calculated the cost of new regulatory  compliance under all the regulation changes implemented over the past almost eight years of the Obama Administration.  In the NAM’s May 2016 report “Red Tape Rising 2016: Obama Regs Top $100 Billion Annually” it estimates that since 2009 new major regulation implementation has cost $108 billion dollars per year.  How does this add up?

The report uses the regulatory agencies own numbers in calculating the cost.  The regulations just keep on coming as his Presidency winds down. This cost data does not include the Final Contractor Sick Leave Rule issued just last week. That new rule requires covered employers to offer seven paid days off per year. A costly benefit that the government will ultimately pay for as the contractors build this cost into their projects.

The collective number of new major regulations implemented since 2009 is 229. “Major” regulations are defined as those estimated (by the government) to cost over $100 million/yr. (by employers) or more to administer and comply to.  As of 2015 the government employs over 277,000 workers at its regulatory agencies to do enforcement of these regulations—a very significant cost.

The implementation of these regulations not only comes with a direct cost, but they also have cost jobs. The NAM report estimates that collectively these regulations have cost over 155,700 jobs and 411 million hours of paperwork by employers to meet compliance requirements.

In the arena of employment and labor, the Obama administration in just the last year has finalized twice as many major labor regulations than the previous four administrations combined.

The below statistics detail labor regulations implemented by topic, related costs, and hours of employer paperwork US employers will have to do over the next ten years to comply:

Of the non-labor regulation passed in the last seven years, the most costly are the Environmental Protection Agency regulations at $50 billion. What is the total estimated cost of all regulatory requirements on the US economy you ask? $2 Trillion per year. The report points out that this cost is more than the government collects in taxes each year—which by the way, these regulations can be considered a stealth tax.

So the next time you hear some of the Progressives argue for more regulatory control and oversight, let them know how much they are paying for it through higher product and service costs.

Source: the NAM’s May 2016 report “Red Tape Rising 2016: Obama Regs Top $100 Billion Annually” 5/23/2016.