The raft of government regulations that came with the latest delay in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act employer mandate emerged only after much negotiation between business, representatives of workers' interests and federal officials.

The final rules – expressed across more than 200 pages – made plenty of headlines when they were released earlier this month. But what are the nitty-gritty details? What follows is a closer look at what the regulators had to say about six provisions with some of the greatest impact on the workplace: 

1. Employer relief

Employers with more than 50 but fewer than 100 workers got several special concessions in the mandate. The regulators demonstrated an appreciation of the challenges many businesses face in this critical growth range, and offered several concessions to enable them to more smoothly integrate the act's requirements into their benefits plans. Perhaps the most important was the postponing of penalties for noncompliance until 2016.

"The Treasury Department and the IRS understand that application of (tax code) Section 4980H will involve changes for applicable large employers that did not previously offer coverage, or that did not offer affordable, minimum value coverage," the rules says.  "A large percentage of those employers are in the smaller size range, such as those with fewer than 100 full-time employees (including FTEs). "To assist these employers in transitioning into compliance with section 4980H … no assessable payment under section 4980H(a) or (b) will apply for any calendar month during 2015 or any calendar month during the portion of the 2015 plan year that falls in 2016."