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Compensation & Benefits

Unemployment: Workplace threats are grounds to quit

01/04/2016
Employees who report being threatened at work can quit and collect unemployment benefits if their em­­ployer doesn’t act fast to provide a safe workplace. Such a “compelling and necessitous” reason to quit makes the employee eligible.

Must we pay for employees’ online training from home?

01/04/2016
Q. “Our company has a policy of completing mandatory compliance training by a certain date every year. Can hourly employees who cannot complete these trainings during work hours (when they are clocked in) be asked to complete these trainings from home by logging on to the company’s training website? Will they have to be paid for this time? Is this legal?”

January 2016: Employer’s business tax calendar

12/31/2015
Here’s your monthly guide to critical payroll due dates.

The Tax Court takes a snow day

12/23/2015
It snowed a lot during the winter of 2015. In fact, it snowed so much that the Tax Court ruled that a taxpayer’s petition was timely filed even though it was one day late, because the federal government was closed for a snow day on the day the petition was due.

Obamacare ‘Cadillac tax’ rolled back until 2020

12/22/2015
The much-maligned “Cadillac tax” on high-value employer-provided health insurance plans has been delayed for two years after President Obama signed a massive budget bill in late December that funds the federal government for the coming year.

New classification aims at ‘gig’ economy

12/22/2015

Traditionally, there are four possible ways to classify people who perform work. But two classifications—independent contractors and employees—cover most work. Except, some say, in the emerging sharing or “gig” economy. Now two economists at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, D.C., have proposed a new category: independent worker.

Is there any requirement to pay a special premium to employees who must work on holidays?

12/21/2015
Q. This came up last month. We needed some of our employees to work during the holidays. Were we required to pay them extra for those days?

What are the limits on hours that school-age children can work in California?

12/21/2015
Q. We would like to employ some high school students to do clerical work. What are the laws regarding the number of hours we can ask them to work?

Suit challenges call-in policy at retailer Urban Outfitters

12/21/2015
Urban Outfitters and its subsidiaries Anthropologie and Free People face a lawsuit alleging the company’s call-in policy violates California labor law.

FY2016 budget bill provides funding for HR-related issues, taxes

12/21/2015
The omnibus spending bill that President Obama signed Dec. 18 did more than fund the federal government for 2016 and delay implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s “Cadillac tax.” The massive legislation—it’s both a tax bill and an appropriations bill—addresses hundreds of measures affected by the federal budget.