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Compensation & Benefits

Prepare to pay overtime to some delivery drivers

11/01/2006

You can no longer rely on the "motor carrier exemption" in the Fair Labor Standards Act to avoid paying overtime to delivery drivers who use vans and pickup trucks on their routes …

Employees can hold you to oral pay promises under Pa. law

11/01/2006

Here’s a reason to be extra careful about what you say to employees regarding their pay: The Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law (WPCL) gives employees a way to collect on employers’ promises about wages, even if those promises were never put in writing …

Replace posters to reflect new $7.15 state minimum wage

11/01/2006

Make sure you’re complying with the state’s new minimum wage, which increased $1 per hour on Oct. 1 to $7.15 per hour. (For full-time college students, you may pay as little as 85 percent of the minimum wage.) …

5 things to tell employees about the new pension law

11/01/2006

The Pension Protection Act of 2006, signed by President Bush in August, swept in big changes for employer retirement plans. Educating employees about the law will likely fall to you. Here are five key points you should explain to employees long before the major provisions take effect in 2008 …

Help Older Workers With ‘Rewirement’—Not Just Retirement—Planning

11/01/2006

If your organization helps older employees plan for their retirement, you’ve probably been asking them how they’re set financially for their golden years. What you might ask instead is: What do you want to do with the next one-third of your life? …

 

Is your pension consultant biased? 10 questions to ask

11/01/2006

It’s getting harder to find a good pension consultant: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is warning employers that some consultants fail to disclose their conflicts of interest, and that can cloud the objectivity of advice they give you and your employees …

Mortgage brokers sued for overtime, FLSA violations

11/01/2006

The U.S. Labor Department sued Alliance Mortgage Group and Credit Financial Services for allegedly owing more than $239,000 in back pay to about 200 loan officers it misclassified as exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act …

Workers must suffer ‘Adverse action’ to win bias case

11/01/2006

Federal law says you must grant employees "reasonable accommodations" for their religious beliefs and practices. But that doesn’t mean that any employees who are told they must work on their Sabbath have an automatic lawsuit …

Requiring work during breaks: a $78 million mistake

11/01/2006

A Pennsylvania jury last month awarded a group of present and former Wal-Mart employees $78 million in damages because the mega-retailer forced the employees to work without pay …

If state orders back pay, worker can’t file a second suit

11/01/2006

Good news for New Jersey employers: When the New Jersey Department of Labor reviews an employee’s unpaid-overtime claim and orders back pay, the employee can’t file a separate lawsuit in federal court asking for more money and attorneys’ fees to boot. Labor’s decision is final; case closed …