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Compensation & Benefits

The boss’s son: Employee or independent contractor?

05/09/2014

Q: Our company president’s teenage son has been hired to do what the president calls incidental work around our office this summer. He’s signed a “Professional Services Agreement,” which specifies that he will be paid $10 an hour. Payroll has been told not to put him on the payroll because he’s an independent contractor. We think he should be put on the payroll. Who’s correct?


Employee hurt while driving out of company parking lot: Is she due workers’ comp?

05/09/2014
Each state’s workers’ compensation law is different, but most say employees’ injuries are covered if they occur during the “course of employment.” Sometimes that can be a close call … in this case, one foot.

Leasing organizations may be liable for clients’ payroll taxes

05/08/2014
The IRS can only collect payroll taxes once—either from you or your designated third party. Final regulations, which became effective March 31, 2014, clarify when employee leasing organizations are liable for their clients’ payroll taxes. Warning: Even though the regs heap liability on leasing organizations, they stress that you remain on the hook for your payroll taxes.

After five years, Wage and Hour Division finally has an administrator

05/06/2014
Boston University management professor David Weil has been confirmed as the next administrator of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD). Nominated in September 2013, the Senate confirmed Weil on a party-line vote: 51 Democrats yea, 42 Republicans nay.

Reference pricing could reduce health costs

05/06/2014
A new health insurance approach called “reference pricing” may help control employers’ health costs, according to a new analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Regs clarify ‘risk’ for taxing noncash compensation

05/05/2014
Under tax code Section 83, you don’t tax employees who receive company stock, stock options or other property that is subject to a substantial risk of forfeiture until the risk lapses and the property vests. Final regulations issued in February, which closely follow proposed regs, clarify what counts as a substantial risk of forfeiture.

Is the government moving to address restrictions on employee discussion of wages?

05/01/2014
Q. We heard that the president recently took action on whether employees are permitted to discuss compensation. Are there any new requirements on employers with regard to these kinds of conversations?

Supreme Court rules severance payments taxable

05/01/2014

The U.S. Supreme Court has resolved a split among circuit courts with a late-March ruling that employer severance payments to employees are FICA-taxable as wages. Employers must, therefore, remit their portion of Federal Insurance Contri­­bu­­tions Act (FICA) withholding taxes for those payments.

Never link absences to employee’s disabled relative

05/01/2014
Here’s an easy way to avoid unnecessary litigation: If you are disciplining an employee for missing too much work, don’t tie absences to a disabled relative’s condition. If you do, you may end up losing an association discrimination case.

Don’t try to recoup overpayments in FLSA suit

05/01/2014
Some employers end up overpaying for time worked when, for example, employees continue to draw a paycheck while home on some sort of leave. But if you happen to face an FLSA lawsuit over unpaid overtime, don’t expect the court to let you credit those overpayments when it’s time to compensate unpaid overtime hours.