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Compensation & Benefits

Are there legal risks in capping salaries?

02/24/2009

Q. I have a question about capping employees’ salaries when they reach the top of the pay scale. I’m concerned because the only employees affected are those with many years of service and who happen to be over age 40. Have we made a legal error? Some of the affected employees are angry and have mentioned discrimination based on the residual effect of the cap?

New economic stimulus law will find HR working closely with accounting

02/20/2009

The politics of the economic recovery and stimulus bill President Obama signed on Feb. 17 have been the talk of Washington for weeks. Now get ready to figure out what it really means for business. Tip for HR pros: Plan on spending lots of time in the accounting department.

Record number of employers dispute unemployment claims

02/19/2009

When you fire an employee for misconduct and he proceeds to file an unemployment compensation claim, how does your organization respond? In recent years, record numbers of U.S. employers have challenged those payouts. The rise in challenges can be pegged to more employers citing misconduct as the reason for terminations.

Stimulus law adds COBRA subsidy, tax changes

02/19/2009

The $789 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) signed on Feb. 17 by President Obama includes a handful of key HR-related provisions, including: COBRA subsidies, a Making Work Pay Credit and unemployment compensation.

Keep solid time records to prove whether employee is eligible for FMLA leave

02/19/2009

One criterion for employees to be eligible for FMLA leave is that they must have worked at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months preceding the FMLA leave. That’s why it’s important to track employees’ hours, even hours worked by exempt employees, too.

Must you offer FMLA for ‘possibility’ of serious illness?

02/19/2009

Don’t be so quick to pull out the “request denied” stamp when employees want to use FMLA leave to determine whether they have a qualifying “serious condition.” As a new court ruling shows, if an employee simply thinks she has a serious condition, she may take FMLA leave to have it checked out.

It’s time for a pay discrimination self-audit

02/19/2009

Is your company vulnerable to employees’ claims that they weren’t paid the right amount due to company policy or discrimination? Now’s a dangerous time to answer “yes” or “I don’t know.” Reason: A perfect storm of trends is prompting more U.S. workers to pursue their pay-related claims in court.

FMLA: ‘Serious Health Condition’ Defined

02/18/2009

HR Law 101: The FMLA defines a “serious health condition” as an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves one of the following: hospital care, absence plus treatment, pregnancy, chronic conditions requiring treatments, permanent/long-term conditions requiring supervision, or multiple treatments (non-chronic conditions).

Stop ex-workers from ‘stealing’ vacation leave

02/17/2009

Employers are free to set the terms by which employees earn vacation leave. But what happens to that leave when employees resign or are fired? Here’s how to make sure you don’t leave that answer open to interpretation—by your employees or a court.

2 Ohio companies make Fortune ‘best’ list

02/12/2009

Two Ohio companies have made the 2009 Fortune magazine “100 Best Companies to Work For” list: Southern Ohio Medical Center, headquartered in Portsmouth, and OhioHealth, based in Columbus.