A majority of the 120m U.S. employees work at large firms. True or False? Depends on how you define large.
- If Large = 100 employees or more then Yes, 65.1% of employees work at large firms
- If Large = 500 employees or more then Yes, 50.6% of employees work at large firms
- If Large = 750 employees or more then No, 47.6% of employees work at large firms
- If Large = 1000 employees or more then No, 45.4% of employees work at large firms
- If Large = 1500 employees or more then No, 42.3% of employees work at large firms
- If Large = 2000 employees or more then No, 40.1% of employees work at large firms
- If Large = 2500 employees or more then No, 38.5% of employees work at large firms
- If Large = 5000 employees or more then No, 32.9% of employees work at large firms
And why does it matter? Because how we define small and large businesses should affect Policy decisions.
It should also be noted that the 120m employed excludes the 21m of non employer firms (one man bands) that do not run a payroll. That fact puts the bar even higher to assert that the majority of Americans are employed by large companies. Taking non employer firms into account I believe you would need to define large as firms of 400 or more. My view, large means at least 1000 employees or about 45% of the 120m.
It should also be noted that the 120m employed excludes the 21m of non employer firms (one man bands) that do not run a payroll. That fact puts the bar even higher to assert that the majority of Americans are employed by large companies. Taking non employer firms into account I believe you would need to define large as firms of 400 or more. My view, large means at least 1000 employees or about 45% of the 120m.
The Graph
