Compensation and Benefits

New Michigan Poll Challenges Employers on Domestic Partner Benefits

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Where should Michigan employers go on domestic partner benefits?

If the latest statewide poll results are an indicator of where Michiganders stand on the question of same-sex marriage, many Michigan private-sector employers will feel the need to take a fresh, hard look at whether or not they should be offering domestic partner benefits to their unmarried employees.

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Part-Time Employees Confused About the Affordable Care Act

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Do you feel confused about the Affordable Care Act? Apparently, if you do you are not alone. A new survey conducted online by Harris Interactive reveals that many part-time employees are confused about the impact the new law will have on them. The study, commissioned by The Workforce Institute™ at Kronos Incorporated, surveyed 2,066 U.S. adults. According to the survey, 27% of respondents indicated that they were "confused" about the Affordable Care Act, another 25% said "hopeful," and 22% said they were "angry."

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Why Does Health Care Cost so Much? Hospitals Don’t Know What Their Costs Are

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

On May 8, 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (www.cms.gov) published the prices charged by over 3,000 hospitals for the 100 most common procedures. The data provided include charges of specific hospitals that receive Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) payments paid under Medicare. Hospitals determine what they will charge for items and services provided to patients and these charges are the amount the hospital bills for an item or service.

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Proposed Bill Makes a “Comp Time” Law Actually Possible

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, mindful of perception that their party has come to be perceived as anti-family and anti-worker, have resurrected a bill that they hope will win back voters who see the party that way and have turned against it in the voting booth.

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Retirement Readiness Concerns Grow

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

If you are like most people with a retirement plan, you have probably watched with glee (and knocked on wood at the same time) as the stock market has steadily increased in recent months. Market indices are now at or above the dismal days of the Great Recession, making some employees sigh with relief as their retirement accounts recover. However, there is still great concern among employers about the readiness of their employees to retire.

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As Time Gets Short, ACA Still Too Confusing for Many Employers and Individuals

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

No one expected it to be easy to understand and implement the Affordable Care Act, but at some point they figured it should start to make sense. But the truth is that for many employers and individuals, we have not reached that point yet. Everybody from insurance companies to small businesses to healthcare systems appears to be in a sustained state of anxiety. So we plod along hoping that point in time will get here, and soon.

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Employers: Expect Little Help From the State in Battling Phony U/I Claims

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

An apparently chastened Steve Arwood, head of Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency, has assured the state Senate that the agency would once again show up at hearings to support employers who contest fraudulent unemployment comp claims over $3,500. The question remains, however, as to how the now-much smaller agency plans to pull it off. Last fall, the agency laid off 450 of its workers—about one-third of its entire manpower—due to budget cuts.

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For Millenials, Salary Secrets are Relics of the Past

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

For Millenial workers transparency trumps everything, particularly privacy. Today the traditional taboo against employees discussing salaries with each other is going away. Think about it: Millenials have grown up with virtually every aspect of their lives documented publicly, from Facebook to Twitter and Instagram to Flicker. Hardly anything is private to them anymore. Baby Boomer managers struggling to comprehend that fact need to remind themselves of their own mantra from many years ago: The times they are a-changin’.

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Lansing Moves to Keep Mandated Paid Sick Leave out of Michigan

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

If they haven’t already, employers in Michigan and its neighbor states may soon begin to feel surrounded and under siege by the forces for mandated paid sick leave, which are now coming at them from both the left and right coasts. In fact some legislators in Lansing want to figuratively turn the state into a fortress, complete with figurative moat, drawbridge, and ramparts, to give employers the wherewithal to hold out indefinitely against the oncoming hordes.

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