• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Compensation & Benefits

Pay for holiday when it’s normally an off day?

07/20/2007

Q One of our employees is assigned to work 32 hours per week. His regular off-day is Monday. If a holiday falls on a Monday (such as Labor Day), is the employee entitled to pay for the day?

Legislature passes ‘Play or pay’ benefits bills

07/20/2007

California’s legislature is moving forward on two “play or pay” bills that would require employers that do not offer cafeteria health plans to their workers to pay into a state-run health plan purchasing pool …

Federal Overtime Law: 4 Tips For Staying In Compliance

07/19/2007

Lawyers who want to make a quick buck are capitalizing on recent overtime class-actions that have netted millions in unpaid overtime and penalties. In fact, overtime and other unpaid-time lawsuits have become a cottage industry in the 21st century …

Worried about ‘Donning and doffing?’ Relax

07/09/2007

The U.S. Supreme Court created a big fuss last year by ruling that time used to put on or remove some work clothes and safety gear outside actual work hours might be compensable time. Many employers changed the way they calculated pay …

Additional workers’ comp benefits end at initial Social Security benefit age

07/09/2007

Employees who receive additional benefits under the Workers’ Compensation Law 15(3)(v) lose those additional benefits as soon as they reach eligibility for federal Social Security old-age benefits …

HR certification: Worth it? If so, which one to pursue?

07/01/2007

You may not need a license to practice HR or benefits administration, but earning an HR certification tells your employer (and potential employers) that you know your stuff …

‘Death audits’ and 6 other ways to avoid benefit errors

07/01/2007
Whether you work with a benefits team of one or 100, chances are you don’t have time to check every calculation you make. Yet simple mistakes can cost an organization millions of dollars in benefits overpayments.

Arbitration covers claims for unpaid bonus and severance

07/01/2007

The California Court of Appeal recently ruled that binding arbitration mandated by an arbitration agreement could determine a former employee’s wage claims for an unpaid profit-sharing bonus and severance pay …

‘Spiffs’ don’t count when establishing overtime exemption

07/01/2007

If you have an incentive system in which employees who sell a particular item get an additional set payment—commonly called a “spiff”—on top of other payments for selling the item, you can’t count the spiff as part of the commission …

Incentive pay hours don’t count toward the 1,250 hours required for FMLA leave

07/01/2007

Q. We are a hospital and we give employee “bonus” hours if they agree to work weekends and at other times that are difficult to staff. An employee has requested FMLA leave to care for a family member. Our employee has actually worked less than the FMLA-required 1,250 hours in the year, but because of the bonus hours, she has been paid as if she worked more than 1,250 hours. Does she qualify? …