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Compensation & Benefits

Association health plans are small business option

09/11/2018
Billed as an alternative to health insurance required by the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Labor has issued regulations allowing small businesses—including sole proprietors with no employees—to band together to form association health plans.

New employee may be eligible for ‘ADA leave’

09/05/2018
Technically, there’s no such thing as “ADA leave” in the same sense that the FMLA specifically grants time off to deal with medical issues. However, some disabled employees may be entitled to leave as an ADA reasonable accommodation.

Small business retirement plans get boost from executive order

09/04/2018
The order calls on the Department of Labor to explore how to expand multiple employer plans, allowing unrelated businesses to band together to jointly sponsor retirement plans.

2019 consensus emerging: Raises to average about 3%

08/28/2018
A new study brings the consensus about 2019 pay increases into sharper focus. The Willis Towers Watson consulting firm projects that U.S. employers will dole out raises averaging 3.1% next year.

Summer’s over: Tell staff to get outta here!

08/28/2018
Once Labor Day weekend ends, lots of your employees will have used up most of their vacation leave. Many, however, probably still have big vacation balances left to burn. Do them and your organization a favor: Tell them to take off!

What are the California rules governing leave when parents must respond to their kids’ discipline problems?

08/27/2018
Q. Must we provide time off to an employee who needs to appear at school because his or her child was suspended from school?

Accurate pay statements: your responsibility

08/27/2018
It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure employees receive accurate wage statements with each paycheck. That’s true even if the employee hasn’t provided an accurate accounting of time worked.

Time rounding must generally favor employees

08/27/2018
Under Department of Labor regulations covering the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers must pay workers for all time worked, subject to some rounding. Time may be kept, and pay computed, based on rounding “to the nearest 5 minutes, or to the nearest one-tenth or quarter of an hour.”

Snapshot: How much is that promotion worth?

08/21/2018
Average wages have grown just 2.8% since last year. But employees who won promotions saw their pay increase 8.7%.

Salaries flat in ’19, budgets increasing less than 3%

08/21/2018
As the job market continues to tighten, you’d think employers’ wallets would loosen up. But that’s not happening, at least not for broad increases in salary budgets.