The 50th Employee

Lost amid the shuffle of yesterday's ObamaTax ruling is the Employer Mandate. Way that works is, if you employ more than 49 people, you've either got to offer (and help pay for) a group plan or pay a penalty tax. For most employers this will be a no-brainer: the penalty tax will be much lower than the insurance premium.

Here's the problem: if you currently employ 49 people, you're not going to be hiring that 50th guy, because that would cancel your exemption. Which means your current workforce is either going to have to work harder (to make up for that missing 50th employee), or you're going to need to scale back even further.

And if you're the 50th employee right now, you'd best be updating your resume.