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Compensation & Benefits

Handling time-Clock rounding for early, late workers

04/17/2008
Q. We don’t allow our employees to punch the time clock more than seven minutes early or clock out more than seven minutes late. How do we round up or down when calculating how to pay them for clocking in early or out late? — J.N., Connecticut …

Can you set work-time minimums for exempt staff?

04/17/2008

Q. All our department managers are salaried. When they’re hired, they agree in writing to work at least 50 hours per week. If they miss a day or work only 45 hours in a week, can we deduct from their salaries? — B.L., Florida  …

You don’t have to pay for all employee training

04/15/2008

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to compensate employees for any time spent on the job that benefits the employer. There are, however, some exceptions. For example, if employees use their own time to study materials that will qualify them for promotions, that time generally doesn’t have to be paid.

Wal-Mart touts generic drug program savings

04/14/2008
Arkansas-based Wal-Mart says its $4 generic prescription drug program has saved consumers $1 billion as of March 10. The company reports that the $4 prescriptions now account for 40% of all prescriptions it fills. Florida consumers benefited from the second-highest savings nationwide: $72,443,467 …

Senate panel votes to stop police from ‘Double dipping’

04/14/2008
Following reports that more than 8,000 state employees are “double dipping”—collecting a pension while returning to work to collect a state salary—some lawmakers have tried to stop the practice. Another 131 state employees are said to be triple dipping …

Run sales commission language by counsel to avoid needless litigation

04/10/2008
Employees who work on a commission basis and are fired often look to their compensation agreements to find any possible way they can claim additional commissions. Their first stop after the unemployment office is often an attorney, who will go over the compensation agreement with a fine-toothed comb to see whether there is more money to be had …

USERRA and the choice of paying or not paying for health insurance

04/10/2008
Q. It has been our company’s policy to maintain health insurance coverage for the families of employees who are serving in Iraq. It has recently come to our attention that one such family includes a spouse who is working, and the spouse has declined health insurance coverage at her job because we have been providing it free of charge. I have been asked whether we have an ongoing obligation to provide for this family’s health insurance coverage while our employee is on leave to serve in the military …

Is there such a thing as intermittent childbirth leave?

04/10/2008
 Q. We have a question regarding FMLA leave following the birth of a child. One of our employees is pregnant. She has recently immigrated to the United States. She has informed us that she expects to take eight weeks of FMLA leave immediately after the child is born. Then after a few months, she would like to return to her home country to visit with family for a month. In other words, she wants to split up FMLA leave into an eight-week period and a four-week period. Can FMLA leave for a new child be split up in this fashion? …

Resist the temptation to misclassify employees as contractors

04/09/2008
You’re writing your unemployment insurance checks, paying workers’ compensation premiums and remitting payroll taxes to the government when a bright idea occurs to you: If only your employees were independent contractors, you wouldn’t have all these expenses. The Illinois General Assembly understood the appeal of that daydream—and took action to slap you back to reality …

Consistently applied blanket-Leave limits don’t violate FMLA

04/09/2008
If you’re having absenteeism problems, consider instituting a policy that says an employee who exceeds an absence threshold will be automatically terminated—regardless of the reason. Such a policy can cover absences relating to personal or vacation leave, time off covered by workers’ comp and even FMLA leave …