17
Apr
2018
As of January 2017, 52 health insurance providers reported 21.8 million HSA/HDHP enrollees, up from 20.2 million in 2016. This is according to a recently released survey from America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) who also reported a 9.2% increase in enrollment in HSA/HDHP from 2016 to 2017 in an analysis of a constant sample of 45 health plans.
Calculating time worked for non-exempt employees who travel for their job is a challenge for many employers. On April 12, the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division issued an opinion letter that tackles this question.
10
Yesterday, April 10, was Equal Pay Day, which means that women had to work all of 2017 and until April 10, 2018 to equate to what men made in just 2017. On average, women in the U.S. are paid 20% less than men according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. This research prompted Lean In, a nonprofit founded by Sheryl Sandberg to empower all women to achieve their ambitions, to start a new hashtag, #20percentcounts.
3
A survey of articles on the effectiveness of dependent eligibility audits show employers, on average, find between 4-8% of current participants ineligible for their healthcare plan coverage. In some cases, ineligible dependents constituted for 15% of the dependents receiving health care benefits. The average cost per ineligible dependent to the employer is between $3,500 and $4,500 per year.
20
Mar
When an employee’s workweek fluctuates above and below 40 hours, employers need to understand what they can and cannot do when it comes to payment of wages and overtime. Wage and Hour regulations address employee work hours that fluctuate above 40 hours in a week. When weekly work hours exceed 40, overtime pay at time and one-half is due. However, in a fluctuating work week situation the overtime rate can fluctuate along with the regular rate.
13
Last week the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced the rollout of a “new” pilot program called the Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program. This program offers employers a process to self-report wage and hour violations with the DOL to clear them up without being exposed to as many potential damages and monetary penalties.
6
In today’s society, the right talent is hard to find. When searching for the best candidate for a complex position, compensation is key to attracting the level of talent you need. Having a market-based compensation program is one way to ensure that a company remains competitive. The following seven steps will provide an overview for creating such a program within an organization.
27
Feb
Most federal gender pay discrimination cases are brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The other applicable law that was intended to address pay discrimination, the federal Equal Pay Act (EPA), was enacted before Title VII and was more narrow-focused.
As unemployment has steadily ticked down for the last several years, economists watched and waited for wage growth to start. Questions as to why a tightening labor market was not resulting in higher pay have been discussed and debated. As late as this week, an article in the New York Times (NYT) pointed to several macro force reasons wage movement was not behaving as economists have predicted.
30
Jan
Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the requirements of the ACA have profoundly impacted small employer plans (under 50 employees) by raising costs at a faster rate than large employer plans.
23
Benchmarked compensation data provides organizations the information they need to make sound pay decisions for hiring, promotions, internal equity salary adjustments, and general compensation planning.
16
2
Pay discrimination investigations have been around for a long time. After hiring discrimination, pay discrimination follows as one of the most common areas of discrimination complaint. Lilley Ledbetter’s Fair Pay law, passed in 2009, highlighted pay inequity and has put pay discrimination front and center with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFFCP).
5
Dec
2017
A recent survey from the American Society of Employers (ASE) revealed that small employers are less likely to adopt critical pay administration practices like pay structures or written compensation philosophy statements. By not embracing these compensation systems they are putting themselves at greater risk of employee attraction and retention issues.
14
Nov
Imagine an employee that is paid close to a million dollars annually, is non-exempt, and therefore entitled to time and one-half on top of their six figure pay. Possible? A federal court in Tennessee says yes. The Plaintiffs in this case were employees paid as commission based sales representatives. They earned well over $100,000 per year, and in some years the most successful sales representatives earned over $900,000.
7
Michigan Democratic Legislators are introducing legislation intended to curtail illegal deductions from pay. Any illegal deduction from pay is being called wage theft. Wage theft is described as the “denial of wages or employee benefits that are rightfully owed to an employee.”
The Republican tax bill was introduced last Thursday by the House of Representatives. The proposed bill has mixed-results for HR programs, although 401(k) programs are relatively untouched.
31
Oct
Last week we wrote about the recent Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision pertaining to hours worked and travel time. Following up in short order, the Sixth Circuit ruled on yet another and arguably more obscure part of wage and hour regulation, Draw Against Commissions. They looked at whether an employer can collect draws by the employee that exceeded commissions owed after employment ends.
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