Compensation & Benefits

Beware new class-action threat targeting smoker surcharges

03/10/2025

Employees claim Whole Foods’ benefits plan violates ERISA because plan administrators aren’t acting in the smoking employees’ best interests when they refuse to refund surcharges after employees quit using tobacco products.

Pay-equity audit? Be prepared to show your work

03/07/2025

To avoid litigation, many employers conduct internal audits to ensure pay equity when employees perform substantially identical work. If you decide to run a pay-equity audit, be prepared to show exactly how you conducted it.

Court says DOL can use salary level to determine exempt classification

03/03/2025

The Biden administration’s bid last year to raise the white-collar overtime salary threshold from $35,568 per year to $58,656 is dead, the victim of a series of court rulings that said the Department of Labor overstepped its authority by mandating such a big jump. However, one aspect of the OT threshold process stands.

April 2025: Employer’s business tax calendar

02/28/2025

Here’s your monthly guide to critical payroll due dates.

Follow-up on immigration enforcement

02/27/2025

We’ve already covered the new administration’s immigration enforcement priorities. But there’s more to consider.

SECURE 2.0 challenge, part 11: Auto-enrollment 401(k) plans

02/25/2025

The IRS has already released key guidance on SECURE 2.0’s mandate that all 401(k) plans established after Dec. 29, 2022, be auto-enrollment plans, beginning with the 2025 plan year. Proposed regulations now round out and encompass this previous guidance.

Poll: Cost of health care is now biggest economic problem

02/24/2025

Health-care affordability is a “very big problem” according to 67% of surveyed adults.

Global retirement fund assets climb to record $58.5 trillion

02/24/2025

That compares with $55.7 trillion at the end of 2023, when the same study measured a return to growth after the sharp fall in global retirement fund assets in 2022.

Beware potential huge cost of small wage-and-hour mistakes

02/21/2025

When employers don’t understand wage-and-hour laws such as the Fair Labor Standards Act—or worse, when they try to circumvent that law—they can find themselves on the hook for potentially costly penalties. Even relatively small violations can quickly add up.

In the Payroll Mailbag: March ’25

02/19/2025

Vendors relentlessly market their wellness plans to employers, intentionally misrepresenting or not understanding the payroll rules. You’d be wise to not take vendors’ claims at face value. Two questions illustrate.