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Compensation & Benefits

12 low-cost employee-appreciation strategies that work

02/01/2013

Money is great. Benefits are nice. But there’s one key thing that keeps good employees from walking away: knowing that management appreciates them and their work. Here are 12 low-cost ways that your organization can show gratitude to your employees all year.

From New York to New Mexico: It’s legal to adjust pay based on local standards

01/31/2013

Don’t let pay concerns get in the way of a transfer. Feel free to adjust compensation to account for different market rates in different locations. Courts have said it’s perfectly fine to adjust salaries to suit local standards. Just make sure your compensation decisions are consistent when it comes to protected characteristics.

Time traps when employees clock in before shift starts

01/29/2013
Q. Some of our employees punch in 30 minutes before their shifts are scheduled to begin, and by doing so, they’re racking up overtime. They’ve been told many times not to do this, but they don’t listen. Do we have to pay them for the time after they clock in but before their shifts begin?

Result is costly for taxpayer who chose wrong FedEx service

01/25/2013

Timely mailing is timely filing. This “postmark rule” applies to documents sent to the IRS or Tax Court via the U.S. Postal Service, and to certain services provided by IRS-designated private delivery services. Warning: If you’re going to use a private delivery service, be sure that the IRS has sanctioned that particular service.

IRS issues more Medicare FAQs

01/24/2013
Along with the proposed regulations on the 0.9% additional Medicare tax, the IRS has updated and supplemented its questions and answers regarding this new tax. The latest FAQs stress that the additional tax applies per employee.

Employee health benefits notification begins March 1

01/23/2013
The Affordable Care Act health care reform law requires you to provide current employees and new hires with a notice regarding health insurance coverage, beginning March 1.

For pay statements, does ‘total hours worked’ include vacation and PTO?

01/22/2013
Q. We realize that California requires pay statements to show “total hours worked,” but we’re confused about what exactly this means. Does this include vacation or paid time off that employees have earned?

What should we do? Client asked us not to assign employee who is now out on workers’ comp

01/22/2013
Q. Our company provides services to nursing homes. One of our therapists recently went out on wor­k­­ers’ compensation leave. The facility where she worked has since asked us not to reassign the employee back to its facility. However, we don’t have other placement options for this worker. Do we have any options?

San Francisco grocer held too much green

01/22/2013
The San Francisco grocery store chain Casa Guadalupe and its owner have agreed to pay more than $120,000 to settle a wage-and-hour lawsuit filed by the DOL. The owner admitted to investigators that he willfully failed to issue time-and-a-half overtime pay to employees who worked more than 40 hours in a week.

New California rules for commission compensation contracts

01/22/2013
A new law for 2013 requires Califor­nia employers that pay regular commissions to provide employees with a written contract detailing the formula for calculating commissions, as well as the method of payment.