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Compensation & Benefits

Payroll on the hook for medical loss ratio rebates

06/15/2012
Group health insurers that don’t spend between 80 and 85 cents of every premium dollar on medical care and health care quality improvement must make so-called medical loss ratio (MLR) rebates to employees, beginning Aug. 1, 2012.

How can we legally cut all salaries by 10%?

06/14/2012
Q. We need to cut our payroll costs. Is there any reason we can’t cut everyone by 10%? All our employees are at-will.

IRS announces 2013 HSA inflation adjustments

06/12/2012
The IRS has announced the 2013 inflation-adjusted figures for health savings accounts (HSAs) and high-deductible health plans.

How to respond when employees’ creditors come calling

06/11/2012
Record numbers of bankruptcies and foreclosures have been making a big splash in the news recently. However, a quieter phenomenon—one fraught with traps for unwary em­­ployers—is a concurrent and growing trend of court-ordered or government-issued wage garnishments. Here’s some practical advice on what to do when someone wants a piece of your employee’s paycheck.

State laws on mandatory employee breaks

06/11/2012

The Fair Labor Standards Act doesn’t require you to provide employees with meal breaks. It does require you to pay employees whose meal breaks last for fewer than 30 minutes and those who work through their meal breaks. However, 40 states do have laws covering meal and rest breaks. This chart summarizes those laws.

Settlement after workers (and rabbis) say pay wasn’t kosher

06/08/2012
Brooklyn’s Flaum Appetizing has settled a long-running pay dispute with 20 Hispanic employees at its Williams­burg plant. The kosher food maker and deli agreed to pay the workers $577,000 to settle the dispute.

Self-insured plans must pony up fees for research

06/04/2012
The Affordable Care Act health care reform law requires plan sponsors of self-insured plans, including self-insured plans that cover retirees, to pay fees to support medical research for seven years, beginning with plan years ending on or after Oct. 1, 2012. Sponsors of insured plans who offer employees HRAs and certain health FSAs must also pay the fees.

Think employee is committing leave fraud? Feel free to discipline–and document why

06/04/2012
If you suspect an employee is abusing your generous sick and disability leave benefits, consider cracking down on fraud. As long as you can document that you made a good-faith decision to punish leave abuse, a court won’t second-guess your actions.

Commuting help isn’t reasonable accommodation

06/04/2012
Employers are supposed to provide reasonable accommodations that remove barriers to working for disabled workers. But those accommodations don’t have to include implementing changes that make a disabled employee’s commute easier.

More IRS regs on local lodging, Employer Identification Numbers

06/04/2012
The IRS has been busy adding to its regulatory agenda. Here’s the latest news from the regulations front.