• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Compensation & Benefits

HIPAA: Compliance Rules

11/15/2014

HR Law 101: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 made changes to three areas of the continuing-coverage rules that apply to group health plans under COBRA …

Are loans from the company taxable to employees?

11/14/2014
Q: HR’s latest benefit is a computer purchase program, which is an interest-free loan. The guidelines state its purpose is to encourage employees to purchase up-to-date equipment, increase their comfort level with technology and extend those educational and personal benefits to their families. Employees can borrow up to $1,500, payable over 24 months via payroll deductions. We’re concerned with two aspects of this program …

Should we automatically make payroll deductions for employees’ lunch breaks?

11/14/2014
Q. Our payroll system automatically deducts 30 minutes per day from drivers for lunch since they are on the road and away from a computer. I have concerns about liability. Should we make this deduction?

IKEA announces 17% boost in its minimum wage

11/13/2014
Swedish ready-to-assemble furniture maker IKEA will soon give a pay raise averaging $1.59 per hour to its lowest-paid U.S. employees. The move, affecting about half the company’s workforce of 11,000, will raise IKEA’s average minimum wage to $10.76.

When ‘manager’ doesn’t manage, title doesn’t determine exempt status

11/13/2014
Just because an employee is called a supervisor and sometimes tells others what tasks to perform, that doesn’t mean she’s an exempt admin­­istrative or executive employee. It’s the actual duties performed day to day that count.

Beware automatic nightly time-clock resets

11/13/2014

If your business doesn’t operate 24/7, you probably shut down just about everything at some point during the night. That’s especially common with retail operations. If that shutdown includes resetting the time clocks to automatically clock out everyone, you may be courting a lawsuit.

Will you do your part to save the travel industry? Take that paid vacation

11/13/2014
American workers take only 77% of available paid vacation leave each year, forfeiting a total of 169 million days worth $52.4 billion, according to the U.S. Travel Association. It’s worried about this state of affairs.

Minimum wages on the rise as ballot initiatives pass

11/12/2014
The minimum wage will increase in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, as well as Oakland and San Francisco, Calif., after voters approved local ballot initiatives on Nov. 4.

Octoberfest transformed mortgage bank into Halloween fantasyland

11/12/2014
It’s not all work and no play at United Shore, a Troy, Mich., mortgage lender, which stages an annual Octoberfest.

Never mind Senate Republicans: Supreme Court could scuttle ACA

11/11/2014
The Republican takeover of the Senate may not spell the downfall of the Affordable Care Act, but the U.S. Supreme Court could still cripple it.