The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will delay implementing the employer mandate facet of the new healthcare law until January 2015. The provision stipulates that all employers with 50 or more employees must provide affordable health insurance to their employed or face a $2000 fine per uninsured worker. Opponents to the legislation fear that small businesses with workers numbering around the 50 employee threshold will reduce staff in order to be exempt from the provision. The administration says the delay will allow employers more time to navigate the new healthcare laws.
See "White House delays health-care rule that businesses provide insurance to workers", Zachary A. Goldfarb and Sandhya Somashekhar, The Washington Post, July 2, 2013