SBA increases employee based size standards for industries in NAICS Sector 42, Wholesale Trade, and NAICS Sector 44-45, Retail Trade

Note: These revisions do not affect federal procurement. SBA has published this here for informational purposes only.

The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) has issued a final rule 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).

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.

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.

Businesses will generally benefit from a variety of Federal regulatory and other programs that use 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 may read/download 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.