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While many small business owners lack information about EFCA, what they do understand they do not like. In March 2009, commissioned by the Independent Women's Forum, Lombardo Consulting Group (LCG) conducted a survey testing the understanding of small business owners of the bill, LCG found:

• Of the 500 surveyed, 41% of respondents are female. 94% of the respondents own their own business, ranging from $6,000 to $1,000,000 in gross revenue last year and nearly 70% of the respondents employed fewer than 10 people.
• All of the respondents graduated from high school and the majority of respondents (61%) completed college or post-graduate school.
• Respondents were asked if they have "read, heard or seen anything recently about the proposed federal legislation called the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as EFCA." Fewer than 1 in 5 (18%) small business owners say they "definitely" read, saw or heard something, and only 23% indicate they "might" have read, seen or heard something about the Employee Free Choice Act.
• Once informed, the majority of small business owners (61%) believe EFCA would hurt their business.
• Almost 6 in 10 (59%) small business owners believe EFCA would hurt their relationship with employees. 
• An equal amount of small business owners (62%) state that EFCA would hurt their ability to provide jobs in their community. 
• Not surprisingly, the economy is impacting small business owners.  Approximately 6 out of 10 (57%) say their business is worse than last year and 30% have had to lay off workers. 
• Small business owners have a very negative opinion of labor unions and consider them outdated and bad for business.   
• Small business owners do not believe EFCA should be a legislative priority.  They want Congress to focus on creating jobs, reducing payroll taxes and strengthening SBA lending. 

For more information, please contact Kate Pomeroy at kate.pomeroy@iwf.org.