During the first year after March 24, 1972, employers with fewer than how many employees were not considered employers?

• A. Twenty-five
• B. Twenty
• C. Fifteen
• D. Thirty

Answer: (A)

When a new regulation is introduced, regulators sometimes phase in coverage by setting a size threshold for who is considered an employer. In this case, the rule specifies that during the first year after March 24, 1972, only those with a certain number of employees were treated as employers. That threshold is 25 employees, meaning smaller operations—fewer than 25 employees—were not considered employers during that initial year. The purpose is to ease the transition for very small businesses while gradually extending obligations to larger ones. The other numbers would change who falls under the employer definition, but the historical provision explicitly uses 25 as the cutoff for that first year.