Economy, Taxes, and Healthcare Top Voting Issues for Business Owners in 2018

There are countless factors influencing American voters as they head to the polls this election season. Paychex, Inc., a leading provider of integrated human capital management solutions for payroll, benefits, human resources, and insurance services, asked 600 business owners to rank the top voting issues for their business ahead of the 2018 midterm election. The survey results showed:

Economic growth ranks first on the list, with 25 percent of respondents selecting this issue as most important and 63 percent ranking it among their top three most important issues.
Twenty-three percent selected taxes as their number one issue, and 62 percent ranked it in their top three.
Healthcare landed third, with 20 percent selecting it as their most important issue, and 48 percent ranking it in their top three.

Rounding out the list, when ranked by percentage among respondents’ top three choices, government regulation and complexity (43 percent), wage legislation (i.e., minimum wage laws, overtime rules, and pay equity) (26 percent), immigration (23 percent), foreign trade and tariffs (21 percent), and mandatory paid sick/family leave laws (14 percent) follow in order.

“Though every business is unique, there are universal issues that impact all businesses’ abilities to grow and thrive. Economic growth, taxes, and healthcare are among these,” said Martin Mucci, Paychex president and CEO. “Each of these issues has seen legislative activity since the 2016 election, and many business owners will be reflecting on the impact those changes are having on their business to help inform how they’ll vote in November.”

The survey results also showed how different demographics are ranking these top voting issues:

Regionally, the Midwest, Northeast and South kept with the national trend, selecting economic growth, taxes, and healthcare in their top three most important issues. The West varied slightly, ranking government regulation and complexity as the third most important issue above healthcare.
Gender showed a similar trend with male and female business owners both selecting economic growth and taxes as their number one and two issues, but male owners ranked government regulation and complexity third while females rated healthcare third.

Business size also impacted where respondents ranked certain issues. Business owners with more employees were more likely to rank wage legislation and mandatory paid sick/family leave laws in their top three most important issues. According to the survey:

Twenty-six percent of business owners with 1-19 employees ranked wage legislation first, second, or third compared to 48 percent with 20-99 employees and 46 percent with 100-500 employees.

Mandatory paid sick/family leave laws ranked last on the list for 1-19 employee businesses with 13 percent, while 35 percent of 20-99 and 100-500 businesses ranked the issue in their top three.

Small Business