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The HR I.Q. Test: January ’11

01/11/2011
Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz …

Do small employers have to comply with COBRA?

01/07/2011
Q. We are a small company with only 12 employees. We are under the impression that our employees do not have rights under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) since it applies to larger employers. Are we correct?

11 for ’11: Big trends shaping comp & benefits

12/13/2010
Pay-for-performance and higher employee health care contributions look like they’ll remain fixtures of the post-recession comp and benefits landscape. Here are 11 other trends that could take a firm hold in 2011:

GINA’s effect on wellness programs

12/09/2010
To help you better understand your obligations under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA), we’ve assembled these resources:

Give employees heads-up on new flex spending rules

12/07/2010

The new health care reform law resulted in some changes in the way health care Flexible Spending Accounts will work—and employees need to act on some of those changes right away! Help employees make the most of current FSA benefits and plan future health spending by letting them know about the following changes.

Does new health law require us to cover dependents?

12/07/2010
Q. We offer health insurance coverage only for individual employees. We’ve never provided family coverage for anyone, nor do we make it available at the employee’s cost. An employee with a daughter in grad school says the new health care law requires that she be allowed to add her daughter to the plan because she is younger than 26. Is this true?

Higher workers’ comp fees next year for N.C. employers

11/30/2010
North Carolina employers will see their workers’ compensation premiums rise this coming spring when new rates take effect on April 1. The voluntary market rates will rise 0.6%, while the assigned risk pool will see a 4.1% increase.

Contract talks stuck? Put health care on the table

11/19/2010
News to note if you work in a unionized workplace: Health benefits are still a legitimate bargaining chip. Members of the University Professional & Technical Employees Union recently agreed to shoulder more of the health insurance burden in exchange for better performance-based pay.

3M will steer retirees off its health plan, into Medicare

11/11/2010

Citing a projected rise in health insurance costs following enactment of the health care reform law, 3M has announced it will soon drop retirees from its own health coverage and instead pay them to sign onto Medicare-backed insurance.

HR after the mid-terms: What’s Washington going to do?

11/09/2010
Republicans captured control of the House of Representatives in the mid-term elections, while Democrats retained a slim majority in the Senate. With a Democrat in the White House and a divided Congress, what does that mean for the HR-related issues that have dominated the headlines for the last two years? Here’s our rundown of the likely legislative scenarios.