Understanding the Paycheck Protection Program
Title 1 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act is the Keeping American Workers Paid and Employed Act, which provides relief for small businesses and their employees who are adversely affected by the outbreak of COVID-19. The cornerstone provision is the “Paycheck Protection Program,” an emergency lending facility, administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under its 7(a) lending program, to provide small business loans on favorable terms to borrowers impacted by the current state of economic uncertainty. At $349 billion in new lending capacity, it accounts for the vast majority of the small business assistance provided in the Phase III legislation, and is one of the most important — if somewhat overlooked — aspects of the Congressional response to the pandemic thus far. Congress intended the Paycheck Protection Program to accomplish two fundamental goals: 1) help small businesses cover their near-term operating expenses during the worst of the crisis, and 2) provide a strong incentive for employers to retain their employees. In short, it is intended as a partial revenue replacement program to allow deeply affected businesses to hibernate through a period of severe disruption without making drastic changes to their footprint. The program generally targets businesses, nonprofits, Tribal businesses, and veteran’s organizations with 500 employees or less as eligible for federally insured, partially forgivable loans that can be used to cover short-term operating expenses during the economic crisis. The maximum loan size is equivalent to 250 percent of the employer’s average monthly payroll costs (e.g., roughly 10 weeks of payroll expenses) or $10 million, whichever is less. Payroll costs are defined broadly to include wages, salaries, retirement contributions, healthcare benefits, covered leave, and other expenses. The program includes a number of generous features for borrowers, including six months to one year of deferred repayment, fee waivers, and streamlined application requirements. Most importantly, borrowers are eligible for loan forgiveness equivalent to the sum spent on covered expenses during the eight-week period after the loan is originated. Those covered expenses include the bulk of a typical business’s fixed operating costs: payroll, rent, utilities, and mortgage interest obligations. The forgivable nature of these loans in effect turns them into grants, meaning that qualifying businesses will not see a significant increase in their debt burdens. But to qualify for forgiveness, employers must maintain their pre-crisis level of full time equivalent employees, or else face a reduction in forgiveness proportional to the reduction in headcount. Since many businesses have already been forced to make staffing reductions in response to vanishing customers and lost revenues, the legislation includes a clause that allows them to qualify for loan forgiveness if they have re-hired back to pre-crisis levels by June 30, 2020.
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