Quick Hits - October 28, 2020 - American Society of Employers - Heather Nezich

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Quick Hits - October 28, 2020

Quick HitsFamily health premiums average over $21,000 in 2020:  Annual family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose 4% to average $21,342 in 2020, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). The 2020 KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey found that on average, workers this year are contributing $5,588 toward the cost of family coverage, with employers paying the rest. The survey was conducted from January to July as the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis unfolded and may not capture its full impact on costs and coverage, KFF noted. However, the survey found that the annual change in premiums is similar to the year-to-year rise in workers’ earnings (3.4%) and inflation (2.1%), though over time what employers and workers pay toward premiums continues to rise more quickly than wages and inflation. Since 2010, average family premiums have increased 55%, at least twice as fast as wages (27%) and inflation (19%). In 2020, 83% of covered workers have a deductible in their plan, similar to last year and up from 70% a decade ago. The average single deductible stands at $1,644 for workers who have one, similar to last year’s $1,655 average, but up sharply from the $917 average of a decade ago.  Source:  Kaiser Family Foundation 10/8/20

Governor signs off on unemployment extension:  Governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed into law legislation restoring COVID-related changes to Michigan’s unemployment program following a Michigan Supreme Court ruling that vacated the Governor’s pandemic executive orders.  Public Acts 229 and 230 provide flexibility in unemployment claims during the pandemic and protect employers from a spike in their unemployment taxes. The bills ensure that Michigan maintains access to federal funding for extended unemployment benefits by temporarily maintaining a 26-week state benefit duration and allows employers a full year to protest unemployment claims made between 3/15/20 and 1/1/21. Importantly, the requirement that a claimant be actively engaged in a work-search as a condition of receiving benefits has been restored.

OFCCP recovered more in last 4 years than 8 years under Obama: In the last fiscal year (2019), OFCCP set the record for recoveries at $40.6 million, almost double any other year since the Agency’s inception in 1965.  In FY 2020, backpay recoveries totaled $35.6 million, the second-highest year in history.  From FY 2017 through FY 2020, the Agency recovered approximately $117 million in remedies for protected class members. The recoveries in these four years exceed the recoveries in the previous nine-year period of FY 2008-2016 combined. These monetary amounts are primarily remedies for race and sex discrimination in employment, predominantly in hiring and compensation.  Source: OFCCP

Same race harassment violates Title VII: A black employee complains to the human resources that her supervisor has directed racial slurs at her. The supervisor is also black. Is this a defense to liability for the employer under Title VII? Hardly. Odis Ross, a black male, worked at the Douglas County Correctional Facility. His supervisor, Larry Johnson, was also black. Johnson began using racial epithets, including the n-word and “black boy,” when addressing Ross. Ross resigned and sued his former employer, Douglas County, for race discrimination and harassment under Title VII. The jury awarded Ross $100,000 for emotional distress and mental anguish. Douglas County appealed. After noting that “same race” claims—where a member of a race accuses another member of the same race of race-based mistreatment—are actionable under Title VII, the Eighth Circuit found that a reasonable jury could have concluded that Johnson’s harassment was because of Ross’ race. The racial slurs used would not have been directed at a white person; the only reason Johnson used those slurs was because Ross is black; and that Johnson was also black did not alter this.  The takeaway: slurs based on race, sex, age, national origin, or any other protected trait are never appropriate in the workplace, even between members of the same class, and can expose employers to significant liability under Title VII.  Source: Fox Rothschild 10/20/20

Boomerang hires may not be a great idea:  Although they are easy targets, the four authors of Welcome Back? Job Performance and Turnover of Boomerang Employees Compared to Internal and External Hires gathered data between 2000 and 2010 on more than 30,000 employees of a large retail organization who were initially hired or rehired into a management trainee position. The data was analyzed to compare the performance and turnover of internal and external hires to boomerang employees. The study found that new hires and internal employees outperformed boomerangs after the first year on the job.  Also, boomerang employees were more likely to leave the organization for the same reason they did in the past.  Therefore, the authors say be careful when rehiring.  Source:  HR Executive 10/16/20

Hiring has been easier in 2020:  A Criteria study said that several areas of hiring — including finding high-quality candidates and making the process more efficient — are less challenging this year compared to last year.  Among the biggest year-over-year declines, 45% of respondents said reducing employee turnover was a challenge in 2020 compared to 67% of respondents who said the same in 2019. 68% said that finding high-quality candidates this year was a challenge compared to 87% last year. More than one-third of respondents said COVID-19 would make it easier to find good talent.  Many cited the addition of new hiring strategies in response to the pandemic. The use of video interviews, for example, increased by 159% year-over-year, with 58% saying they have used video interviews in 2020. Criteria surveyed more than 400 hiring managers across multiple countries including the U.S., Australia, and Canada.  Source Criteria 10/13/20, HR Dive 10/15/20

COVID-19 testing leads to potential Illinois biometric lawsuits:  Despite the benefits of COVD-19 screening programs, organizations should proceed carefully to examine not only whether the particular solution will have the desired effect, but whether it can be implemented in a compliant manner with minimal legal risk, particularly regarding the privacy and security implications. Recently, Amazon was hit with a proposed class action lawsuit in Illinois state court, claiming the company’s COVID-19 screening program violated Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). According to the complaint, Amazon employees were required to undergo facial geometry scans and temperature scans before entering company warehouses, without prior consent from employees as required by law when collecting biometrics identifiers, such as a facial geometry scan. The complaint alleges that Amazon employees “lost the right to control” how their biometric data was collected, used, and stored, exposing them to ongoing, serious, and irreversible privacy risks — simply by going into work.  Source: Jackson Lewis 10/15/20

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