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Compensation & Benefits

On-premises fringes: Is there such a thing as a free lunch?

12/24/2014
The IRS has begun to examine the tax treatment of employer-provided free meals, such as those famously provided by Silicon Valley tech firms like Google.

Questions and answers about California’s new Paid Sick Leave law

12/24/2014

The newly enacted Healthy Work­­places, Healthy Families Act of 2014 requires California employers to provide employees with one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, starting on July 1. This is the first of a two-part series designed to get you up to speed on exactly what the new law requires.

Two California nursing homes cited for wage violations

12/24/2014
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has found two California nursing homes failed to pay their employees the federal minimum wage.

Schools, get out your calendars: Teachers have up to three years to sue

12/24/2014
A public school teacher who files an internal appeal over her pay or classification has three years after the final decision to file a lawsuit.

New laws raise damages for minimum wage violations

12/24/2014
Two recently enacted bills will affect how employers pay their employees.

Pay up! Wage-and-hour issues take center stage in 2015

12/23/2014
Wage-and-hour issues could take center stage in 2015, with federal, state and local legislative battles looming over increases to the minimum wage, more wage-and-hour litigation and proposed regulations that could dramatically narrow the overtime exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

No commission payment? Unemployment comp instead

12/23/2014
An employee who doesn’t receive the commissions he believes he is owed can quit and still receive unemployment compensation.

Serve up on-site, tax-free, deductible meals for employees

12/23/2014
Do you provide a company cafeteria or other on-site meals for employees? This can be a valuable tax-free fringe benefit to employees and help attract and retain workers.

How do we enter a gross-up on a W-2?

12/23/2014
Q: The company offers stock to employees, which becomes taxable at a later date. Employees who terminate during the year are still eligible for the stock, but, since there are no longer wages from which we can withhold, we gross up the FICA taxes. On their W-2s, we make entries in Boxes 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Management is questioning why, if we’re only paying the FICA taxes, all of those boxes are increased. Now we’re not so sure if we’ve been doing this right. Who’s correct?

Study: 2008 market crash delayed retirement for 23%

12/22/2014
Among the victims of the Great Recession of 2008-2009 were the retirement expectations of many Americans. New research from the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute has quantified just how much those hopes suffered.