New tables are out: The IRS issued new withholding tables for 2018, along with an explanatory news release and a frequently asked questions document. The new tables reflect changes made by the tax reform legislation enacted last month. Employers should begin using the new tables as soon as possible, but not later than February 15.  The new tables are designed to work with existing Forms W-4, but the IRS intends to revise Form W-4 to reflect the legislative changes, including the increase in the standard deduction and the elimination of personal exemptions. Some employees, particularly employees who itemize deductions, may need to elect additional withholding to avoid being under-withheld under the new tables. The guidance also clarifies that the new withholding rates for supplemental wages are 22% (for supplemental wages below $1 million) and 37% (for supplemental wages in excess of $1 million).  Source: Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP  1/11/18

Marijuana is “illegal” again.  How does that affect employers? As predicted by a number of political pundits, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the 2013 Cole Memorandum “Guidance Regarding Marijuana Enforcement,” which has established US DOJ Prosecutorial Discretion toward medical and recreational marijuana users and producers in states with laws.  For the most part, prosecution in those states that legalized marijuana, whether for medical or recreational, was not pursued.  For employers the situation really has not changed.  Marijuana remains a Schedule I Drug under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and is therefore unlawful under Federal Law… period. The ADA and most disability discrimination laws would not protect marijuana use because that use was still unlawful under Federal Law.  Therefore, if an employee in Michigan is found using marijuana, the employee can be terminated, although if the usage is for medical purposes, the employee would still be eligible for unemployment.  Source: Fisher Phillips 1/4/18

More employees will quit over salary Glassdoor survey finds:  According to a new Glassdoor survey, 35% of hiring decision makers expect more employees to quit over the next 12 months. The survey, conducted among 750 hiring decision makers in the U.S. and UK, also finds that nearly half (45%) note that salary is the top reason for employees changing jobs, followed by career advancement opportunities, benefits, and location.  While two-thirds (64%) of those surveyed believe their organization is satisfactory/very satisfactory at clearly setting pay and benefit expectations within job postings, salary ranges are still an enigma: Glassdoor data shows fewer than one in 10 online job listings include pay data in the job description. More than one-third (37%) of hiring decision makers say retention rates would increase significantly if new hires were better informed during the hiring process.  In addition, a separate Glassdoor survey from 2017 shows that nearly all (98%) job seekers and employees say it would be helpful to see pay ranges included in open job listings.  Source: Glassdoor, CCH 1/12/18

Higher pay at larger companies becoming a thing of the past? For the last century, economists have noted that similar workers tend to earn significantly more at large firms than at small ones—a premium that worked out to nearly 50% higher pay in the early 1980s for an employee who went from a company employing fewer than 100 people to one employing 10,000 or more.  But more recently, that premium has shrunk to just 20%, Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom and his co-authors found in an analysis of federal income data from the late 1970s through 2013.  According to the study, it has essentially disappeared for lower-paid workers and those without college degrees. The bottom 50% of workers by pay received almost no premium for working at large companies in 2013, while the premium remained steady for college graduates. Among factors contributing to this fall include that lower-paid jobs are increasingly outsourced at large companies, which makes it easier to push wages down for those still directly employed. In addition, low union membership—already pronounced in the private sector in the 1980s—likely has contributed modestly.  Source:  The Wall Street Journal 1/10/17

Mentoring programs are effective but not widespread:  A new survey from Heidrick & Struggles International Inc., finds that more than three-quarters of 1,032 North American employees polled said their best mentors were “very important” or “extremely important” for their careers. Women and minorities were even more likely than the overall pool of respondents to view mentorship as crucial. Some 30% of female respondents called those relationships “extremely important,” as compared with 23% of men.  But nearly three-quarters of those surveyed said their company didn’t have a formal mentoring program. And 20 executives interviewed by Heidrick were skeptical of such initiatives. The lack of formal programs could be a detriment to women and minorities. The survey found that minority respondents had fewer mentors early in their career. Meanwhile, men were more likely than women to count top executives as mentors. These results echo others by LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Co. that found that employees who receive career advice and mentorship from senior leaders are more likely to say they have been promoted in the past two years. But women are less likely to receive this kind of advice.  Source: The Wall Street Journal 12/27/17

Workers Comp for bedbugs?  As workers travel for company business there becomes a question of what happens when bedbugs bite?  So, it is necessary to recognize the top travel locations for bed bugs.  Baltimore is known for its historic neighborhoods, monuments, crab cakes — and, increasingly, its bed bugs.  For the second straight year, the U.S. port city ranked No. 1 on a Top 50 Bed Bug Cities list compiled by Atlanta-based pest control services company Orkin LLC. The list is based on the most residential and commercial treatments for the seed-sized bloodsuckers from December 2016 to November 2017, and reflects a rising number of infestations across the U.S., according to Tim Husen, an Orkin entomologist.  Washington DC, 40 miles from Baltimore, was ranked second on Orkin’s list, followed by Chicago, Los Angeles, and Columbus, Ohio.  Detroit, unfortunately, is number 7 on the list.  Source:  Bloomberg 1/8/18