Employee benefits, sized for small businesses.
Plain-English guides for small-business owners and HR: offering health coverage, the rules employers need to follow, and benefits beyond health insurance. Every guide links to its sources.
Articles
18 articles
Small-Group Health Insurance: How It Works for Small Employers
Who counts as a small employer, the federal protections that come with insured small-group plans, participation rules and the key plan design choices you make.
Read · 6 min read →Offering Health CoverageThe SHOP Marketplace: Eligibility, Enrollment and Renewal
How the Small Business Health Options Program works: the four eligibility tests, enrolling through an insurer or registered broker, multiple locations and renewal.
Read · 6 min read →Offering Health CoverageHRAs for Small Employers: QSEHRA and CHOICE Arrangements Explained
How QSEHRAs and CHOICE Arrangements (formerly ICHRAs) reimburse individual coverage tax-free, with 2026 limits, notice rules and effects on premium tax credits.
Read · 7 min read →Offering Health CoverageSmall Business Health Care Tax Credit: Who Qualifies and How
Who qualifies for the federal Small Business Health Care Tax Credit, how the 2025 IRS limits and phaseouts work, and how to claim it on Form 8941.
Read · 6 min read →Offering Health CoverageLevel-Funded and Self-Funded Plans: What Small Employers Take On
A plain explanation of fully insured, self-funded and level-funded health plans, how their regulation differs, and what to ask before a small business switches.
Read · 7 min read →Offering Health CoverageChoosing a Benefits Broker: Licenses, Pay and Questions to Ask
How to check a benefits broker's license, understand how they are paid and what federal law requires them to disclose, and compare advisors fairly.
Read · 6 min read →Rules & ComplianceACA Employer Mandate: Are You an Applicable Large Employer?
How the IRS decides whether your business is an applicable large employer, what the employer mandate requires, and how potential payments work.
Read · 7 min read →Rules & ComplianceCOBRA for Small Employers: Coverage Rules and Notice Deadlines
Which employers federal COBRA covers, what state mini-COBRA laws are, and the notice deadlines, election rules and premium limits the Labor Department sets.
Read · 6 min read →Rules & ComplianceERISA Basics: Plan Documents, SPDs and Fiduciary Duties
What ERISA expects of a small employer's health plan: a written plan, named fiduciaries, timely summary plan descriptions and Form 5500 rules.
Read · 6 min read →Rules & ComplianceSection 125 Cafeteria Plans: How Pre-Tax Benefits Work
How a Section 125 cafeteria plan lets employees pay for benefits pre-tax, with 2026 FSA limits, election rules and nondiscrimination tests from the IRS.
Read · 6 min read →Rules & ComplianceBenefit Notices and ACA Reporting: What to Send and When
A timeline of the main federal benefit notices and ACA tax reporting, from new-hire Marketplace notices to Forms 1094-C and 1095-C.
Read · 6 min read →Rules & CompliancePlan Nondiscrimination and HIPAA Privacy: Small Employer Basics
How HIPAA health-factor rules, tax nondiscrimination tests and the HIPAA Privacy Rule shape what a small employer's health plan can do and see.
Read · 6 min read →Beyond Health InsuranceDental and Vision Benefits: How Small Employers Can Offer Them
How small businesses offer dental and vision coverage, how federal rules treat limited-scope plans, and how they fit with FSAs and HSAs.
Read · 6 min read →Beyond Health InsuranceSIMPLE IRA, SEP or 401(k): Retirement Plans for Small Businesses
A plain comparison of SEP, SIMPLE IRA and 401(k) plans using IRS and Department of Labor rules, 2026 limits and startup tax credits.
Read · 6 min read →Beyond Health InsuranceEmployee Assistance Programs: What an EAP Does and How to Offer One
What an employee assistance program provides, the federal conditions that shape its design, and how to choose and promote one.
Read · 6 min read →Beyond Health InsuranceFMLA and Leave Basics: What Small Employers Need to Know
Which employers the FMLA covers, what it requires, and the state leave, pregnancy accommodation and tax credit rules small businesses meet.
Read · 7 min read →Beyond Health InsuranceDisability and Life Insurance: Group Coverage for Small Teams
How group disability and life insurance work as employee benefits, including tax rules, ERISA claim deadlines and the $50,000 life rule.
Read · 6 min read →Beyond Health InsuranceCommunicating Benefits: Helping Employees Understand What They Have
How to turn required benefits documents into clear, timely messages employees use, and how to protect your team from benefits scams.
Read · 5 min read →Benefits A–Z
55 Employee-benefit terms explained in a sentence or three, from ALE to Section 125.