Ruder is clued in enough to at least start asking questions, but says he still has gaps in what he needs to know about the health care law. One thing he’s pretty sure of, though: His employees won’t want to spend any money on health insurance.

“They live check to check,” he says. “It’s just the lifestyle that they’re in, and every dollar matters. I just can’t even imagine a sacrifice like this.”

That sacrifice would be about $40 a month for the lowest-price plan for his lowest-paid worker making $10 an hour, after getting a subsidy. Someone who’s making his top-end wage, $15 an hour, would pay a little more.

Subsidized coverage for that worker, plus a spouse and child, would run about $90 a month.

That would be a big expense for Ruder’s employees.

“You’d be surprised,” he says. “We make a $2 error on their check, they’re standing there to have another check cut. They can’t even wait till the next week.”