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Compensation & Benefits

Is there anything in the law that makes it illegal to change employees’ schedules?

01/05/2012
Q. We run a small printing company and have an employee whom we want to move from the day shift to the swing shift. Although this employee has the most seniority, he has the least experience with the presses we run during the day. When we told the employee of our plans, he said that moving him would be illegal. Is he correct? We are worried that if we move him and he quits, it won’t be the last time we hear from him.

What’s a standard workweek?

01/05/2012
Q. What’s the definition of a standard workweek? One of our employees claims that overtime is defined as anything over eight hours per workday. Is he correct?

Amtrak HR exec decides she won’t be railroaded

01/05/2012
Amtrak will give an HR executive working at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station a salary boost of almost $16,000 to bring her into parity with what the railroad pays men doing the same job. She will also receive a lump-sum payment of $171,000.

Chicago’s tough leave lessons: How not to handle FMLA leave

01/04/2012
Here’s a chance to learn from an employer’s FMLA mistakes. Don’t make the same ones yourself.

HR salaries: It pays to specialize

01/03/2012
Organizations are increasingly recognizing the value of human resources and its strategic role in helping recruit, develop, and reward talent. In turn, salaries and the opportunity to earn incentives have increased for HR professionals, according to a report by Culpepper Compensation Surveys & Services. Here is Culpepper’s anaylsis of the report …

We interrupt your perfectly good day for year-end anxiety

01/03/2012
Payroll doesn’t have time to shake off any lingering holiday blues, since it’s down-to-the-wire time for W-2s. Here are two tax questions about gift cards and staff discounts:

Sheetz builds fitness center for employees and families

01/03/2012
The Sheetz gas-and-grocery retail chain is building a new health and wellness center at its distribution facility in Claysburg, Pa., for employees and their families. Bill Young, director of compensation, benefits and risk management, calls the center part of the firm’s “Shwellness” program.

IRS loosens de minimis deposit rules, sets 944 filing rules

01/02/2012
Under the de minimis deposit safe harbor rule, employers that accumulate less than $2,500 in payroll taxes during the current calendar quarter can pay those taxes with their Form 941, rather than deposit them. Final regulations allow quarterly filers to use the safe harbor rule if their accumulated taxes for the current or preceding quarter are less than $2,500.

Bonuses: You paid them, now when can you deduct them?

01/02/2012
If you use an accrual method of accounting and allocate money to a bonus pool, you can breathe a sigh of tax deductible relief. The IRS has concluded that employers can take a current tax deduction for a fixed amount of bonuses that will be paid to employees during the next year.

Final MLR regs raise ERISA, Payroll questions

01/01/2012
Final medical loss ratio (MLR) regulations, which took effect Jan. 1, 2012, require group health in­­surers to spend between 80 and 85 cents of every pre­­mium dollar on medical care and health care quality improvement. Insurers that fall short must make rebates to participants, beginning Aug. 1, 2012.