Articles from Paychex

The Paychex Small Business Employment Watch reported a national index level of 100.06 for small business job growth in the month of October. The jobs index has averaged 100.29 through the first 10 months of 2024, indicating modest job growth in U.S. small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. At the same time, hourly earnings growth in October was 3.02% and weekly earnings growth remained below three percent for the ninth-straight month, marking its lowest level since August 2021.

Paychex, Inc., a leading provider of integrated human capital management software solutions for human resources, employee benefits, insurance services, and payroll, has been included on TIME’s inaugural list of America’s Best Midsize Companies. The company ranked 29th out of 500 top-performing U.S.-based organizations for the strength of the Paychex culture, business results, and corporate responsibility efforts.

According to the Paychex Small Business Employment Watch, the Small Business Jobs Index rose 0.46 percentage points to 100.58 in May, the largest one-month increase since January 2022. At the same time, hourly earnings growth slowed to 3.13%, its lowest level since June 2021, for workers in U.S. small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. The report also indicated that weekly earnings growth was above three percent (3.09%) for the first time since January 2024 due to positive momentum in weekly hours worked by employees in May.

According to the Paychex Small Business Employment Watch, the Small Business Jobs Index grew 0.18 percentage points in March to 100.85 – the first increase year-to-date – but remained below pre-pandemic levels for the first three months of 2024. Hourly earnings growth for workers at U.S. companies with fewer than 50 employees continued a steady deceleration that began in mid-2022, ending March at 3.27% growth year-over-year.

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) have introduced H.R. 6007 – the Retirement Investment in Small Employers (RISE) Act – bipartisan legislation that would allow micro-sized businesses with 1-9 employees to realize full retirement plan startup tax credits and benefits originally offered in SECURE Act 2.0. Paychex, Inc., the largest 401(k) recordkeeper in the U.S. by total number of plans, supports the passage of this legislation, which would help smaller businesses receive incentives similar to those that larger businesses currently receive. Today, the typical costs for employers with fewer than 10 employees to establish a defined contribution plan are higher than the startup tax credits available to those businesses under existing law.

According to the Paychex | IHS Markit Small Business Employment Watch, the national Small Business Jobs Index — which measures the rate of small business job growth in the U.S. — is essentially flat at 99.10, a decrease of 0.04% in August. Meanwhile, an hourly earnings growth rate of 3.98% among U.S. small businesses is unchanged in August from July and below four percent for the second consecutive month.