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Compensation & Benefits

Fight unemployment benefits if employee quits because of unsubstantiated safety fears

06/08/2011
An employee who reports a serious safety hazard and stops coming to work after the employer refuses to fix the hazard may collect unemployment benefits. But that’s not true if the employee doesn’t give the employer a chance to remedy the problem and just quits out of fear.

What’s the New Jersey law on paydays?

06/08/2011
Q. Are there specific rules on when I must pay my employees?

Employer health costs are predicted to rise 8.5% in 2012

06/08/2011

A new PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 1,700 employers says employer health costs are predicted to rise 8.5% in 2012. Employers say they’ll lessen that burden by pushing more costs onto employees.

Suspect medical excuse is bogus? Ask employee for a (real) doctor’s note

06/07/2011
Some people will do anything to get out of work early, including lying about their child’s health. One employer did the smart thing and demanded proof when it became suspicious.

Which of the following issues causes the biggest problems in your organization?

06/07/2011
When it comes to HR headaches, our readers say employment law issues take a back seat to run-of-the-mill gripes and clashes between co-workers.

Feds issue new tip credit pooling rules

06/03/2011
Employers are now free to set the percentage of employee tips that can be placed in a tip pool. In years past, several court decisions conflicted with the U.S. Department of Labor’s position restricting the amount of tips an employer could require to be pooled.

Just having a condition doesn’t confer ADA protection

06/03/2011
Some employees think that merely having a serious medical or mental condition is enough to warrant ADA protection. But that’s not true.

Some work at home doesn’t make commute paid

06/03/2011
Some hourly employees have begun to argue that if they begin the day with a few work emails, they should be paid for the time they spend commuting to work. Fortunately, a 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals panel has nixed that argument. Had the case gone the other way, employers could have faced huge bills for paid commuting time.

Backup withholding required even after W-9s are tossed

06/03/2011

You must backup withhold on payments made to independent contractors if they don’t certify their Taxpayer Identification Numbers to you prior to payment. Contractors may make those certifications by providing you with Form W-9, which you must keep for three years. Caution: You may want to retain these forms for longer than three years. Here’s why:

Timely mailing rule applies to package damaged in transit

06/03/2011
If you mail a tax-related document on the date it’s due, you’ll be considered to have timely filed it, according to the tax code’s timely-mailing-is-timely-filing rule. The same is true if the document isn’t delivered because the post office mangled it during processing.