Payroll

DLSE issues opinion letter on partial-day absences

04/19/2010

The California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) has issued an opinion letter stating that, although employers may not deduct from exempt employees’ salaries for partial-day absences, they may make deductions from employee leave balances in accordance with the employer’s bona fide leave policies.

Can we charge worker a fee for lost paychecks?

04/16/2010

Q. One of our employees is constantly misplacing things, like his W-2 forms and his checks. It’s getting annoying. Can we make him pay a fee? We’re thinking this might make him more careful.

Take advantage of tax breaks offered in new HIRE Act

03/23/2010

With the unemployment rate still holding stubbornly near 10%, Congress this month approved a new $18 billion bill that offers tax breaks to employers who add certain new employees to the payroll. President Obama signed it on March 18.

When time sheets are late, can we hold off on paying OT until the next paycheck?

03/19/2010

Q. Several of our employees repeatedly turn in their time sheets late. Can we institute a policy stating that if a time sheet is turned in late, any overtime on that week’s time sheet will not be paid until the next pay period?

What to do about late time sheets?

03/01/2010

Q. One of our field technicians is consistently late in providing her time sheets. This interferes with promptly billing our customers for work performed. Can we delay paying this employee as an incentive to submit her time sheets on time?

Must we track hours for exempt salespeople?

02/25/2010

Q. We have salespeople who work on a straight commission basis. Do we need to track their hours?

Isn’t this illegal? I was just ordered to garnish one of my employee’s wages

02/12/2010

Q. We recently received a court order to garnish the wages of an employee who has failed to repay a student loan. I thought that the garnishment of an employee’s wages in Texas was prohibited by law. Is that no longer true?

Must vacation, sick leave be listed on pay stubs?

02/05/2010

Q. Our pay stubs currently list employees’ available vacation, sick and other leave hours. Our new software allows employees to log in and check that balance anytime. Can we eliminate that information from the pay stubs?

8 questions help you make the contractor vs. employee call

02/01/2010

With the IRS beginning a nationwide crackdown on employers that try to dodge payroll taxes, now’s the time to make sure your workers are properly classified. Starting in February, IRS auditors began poring over the records of thousands of employers to root out organizations that try to cheat the system by calling workers contractors when they’re actually employees.

Beware! Don’t overreact to pay complaints

01/14/2010

In California, you can’t terminate employees for coming forward to press for enforcement of wage-and-hour claims, even if it turns out the claims were unfounded. That’s because California law strongly supports employee rights to get all the pay they’re entitled to, and efforts to punish employees who are wrong would chill efforts to challenge their employers’ pay policies.