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Compensation & Benefits

State document requirements for employing teens

05/20/2015
Federal law sets the ground rules for employing teens, but state law controls the age at which they must obtain age certificates, working papers or parental consent letters and how long you must retain those documents. This information is summarized in this chart.

Is it legal to make employees pay us back when their cash drawers come up short?

05/20/2015
Q. One of our employees recently had a shortage in his register at the end of her shift. Are we permitted to deduct the shortage from his wages? If not, is there anything we can do?

How does the Paid Sick Leave Law affect the information that must appear on paystubs?

05/20/2015
Q. We are trying to comply with California’s new paid sick leave law, but we are not sure what exactly needs to be included on the paystub.

Minneapolis mayor Hodges calls for more worker-friendly policies

05/18/2015
In her second State of the City address, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges called for more regular work schedules, more overtime pay and greater access to paid sick days.

Final regs clarify criteria for wraparound plans

05/18/2015
Final regulations include as an excepted benefit limited wraparound coverage—coverage that supplements, or wraps around, individual nongrandfathered health policies by providing additional benefits to part-time employees and retirees and doesn’t consist solely of cost-sharing subsidies.

How long do you retain W-2 information?

05/14/2015
Q: A former employee has requested a copy of his 2003 W-2 form. We backed up the data, sent it to a remote storage facility and purged it years ago. It would be extremely burdensome to pull it out now, especially for a former employee. What is the legal requirement for providing employees with copies of old W-2s?

Downturn still takes toll on work/life balance

05/13/2015
One-third of full-time workers believe balancing their work and personal lives has become more difficult in the last five years, as a Great Recession legacy of stagnant salaries and longer hours adds pressure at the office and on the home front.

DOL offers stock-appraisal guidance for companies that sponsor ESOPs

05/12/2015
The U.S. Department of Labor has developed appraisal guidelines to help employers that sponsor Employee Stock Ownership Plans make informed decisions about legally buying and selling company stock.

New white-collar OT rules could be out soon

05/12/2015
The long-awaited rewrite of federal rules governing overtime pay for salaried executive, administrative and professional employees inched closer to enactment on May 5, when the U.S. Department of Labor forwarded a proposed final version to the Office of Management and Budget, which assesses the fiscal impact of government initiatives.

Supreme Court: King v. Burwell & Obergefell v. Hodges

05/08/2015
The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that premium tax credits are available to all qualified individuals, regardless of whether they buy health insurance through a state or federal exchange. The ruling leaves intact the employer free-rider penalties in the 34 states that have not established state exchanges. The case is King v. Burwell, No.  12-114.