The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) has issued a final rule that
- Increases employee based size standards for 46 industries in North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Sector 42, Wholesale Trade;
- Increases the employee based size standard for one industry in NAICS Sector 44‑45, Retail Trade;
- Retains the current size standards in the remaining industries in those sectors;
- Retains the current 500‑employee size standard for Federal procurement of supplies under the nonmanufacturer rule (13 CFR 121.406).
The SBA reviewed all 71 industries in NAICS Sector 42 and two industries in NAICS Sector 44‑45 that have employee based size standards as part of its ongoing comprehensive size standards review as required by the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010.
Nearly 4,000 more firms in Sectors 42 and 44‑45 will become small and therefore eligible for financial assistance under the revised employee based size standards. These revisions do not affect federal procurement programs. Newly eligible small businesses will generally benefit from a variety of Federal regulatory and other programs that use the SBA’s size standards. Such benefits may include, but are not limited to, reduced fees, less paperwork, or exemption from compliance or other regulatory requirements.
You can see the SBA’s final rule at Regulations.gov (search on “RIN 3245‑AG49” [without quotes]). You may also review the originally proposed rule together with all of the comments submitted by going to Regulations.gov. The proposed rule and the comments are included in the same docket.
The revised size standards are effective February 26, 2016.