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Payroll

How can we legally handle paychecks when employees use designees for pickup?

04/22/2009

Q. Once a year, we have employees show a picture ID and provide a signature that allows them to authorize someone else to pick up their paychecks for them. If an employee doesn’t provide ID and a signature, we will mail the check or hold it until he or she personally picks it up. Is this legal?

Street Smarts: Your peers weigh in with 5 real-world comp & benefits solutions

04/21/2009

Try these practical, workplace-proven compensation and benefits tips to recognize employees and save time and money.

Furloughs and unpaid time off create wage-and-hour problems

04/07/2009

Family-friendly practices have suddenly taken a back seat as struggling businesses focus on the bottom line. Now employers are looking for other ways to give employees time off, albeit involuntarily. But when employers impose furloughs, forced shutdowns and reduced work schedules on exempt salaried employees in increments of other than a full week, it can jeopardize exemptions under the FLSA.

Can we dock a worker for not wearing a company shirt?

04/07/2009

Q. I own a construction company. We require all employees to wear a company shirt. If an employee does not wear a company shirt, he or she is assessed a $25 per day penalty, which is deducted from the next paycheck. Is this penalty legal?

Dropping your 401(k) match? Watch employees drop the plan

04/07/2009

Suspending contributions to employees’ retirement accounts can immediately save an organization some cash. As the recession wears on, more businesses are looking at that option. Still, few are actually taking this step, and the ones that are have said it is temporary.

Must we mail former employee’s last paycheck?

04/02/2009

Q. We have terminated an employee who has moved out of state and requested we mail his last check to him. Do we have to mail it? If so, when?

To do this week: Confirm new tax withhholding, begin using new I-9s

03/31/2009

HR pros have two important items to add to their to-do lists this week:

  • Ensure that this week’s payroll reflects more generous federal income tax withholding levels mandated by the economic stimulus law enacted in February.
  • Start using the new Form I-9 on Friday, April 3.

If we supplement unemployment comp benefits, must we pay FICA/FUTA on it?

03/30/2009

Q. If we have a Supplemental Unemployment Pay Plan to supplement unemployment benefits, do the company and the employee have to pay FICA and FUTA taxes on the supplemental pay?

Congress weighs taxing employee health benefits

03/26/2009

The value of health insurance isn’t counted as income on paychecks. But that could change under an increasingly popular proposal being pushed hard by the key tax-writer on Capitol Hill, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Switching payroll vendors? Have a Plan B

03/24/2009

Here’s a cautionary tale to consider if you’re planning to upgrade your time card to a high-tech electronic system.