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Payroll

Starbucks Steamed Over $100M Verdict

03/25/2008
A California Superior Court decision ordering coffee giant Starbucks to pay its baristas $100 million in lost tips has the company in a froth. Trouble has been brewing since it instituted a policy letting supervisors split tip income with hourly workers. You don’t want to find yourself in the same hot water.

Kansas Employers Take Note: New K-4 Withholding Form Required

03/24/2008
Login Email Address Password I forgot my password To continue reading this page, become an HR Specialist Premium Plus member today! Your subscription includes: Ask the Attorney: Answers to your HR legal questions Compliance Guidance: Access to 7,000 HR news articles, updated daily, sorted by state State-by-State: Summaries of HR laws in all 50 states […]

Alternative staffing models may save on employment costs

03/18/2008
During these difficult economic times, small and midsized businesses are looking for ways to reduce their employment costs—while maintaining employee benefits and gaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Many employers are looking at alternative staffing models to meet those objectives …

Travel time and the FLSA: When must you pay?

03/04/2008
To pay or not to pay for travel time? That question has baffled many an employer. Here’s a concise explanation of how you should handle three different travel scenarios—plus Fair Labor Standards Act definitions of “hours worked.”

Termination meeting should include open door, easy exit

03/01/2008

The setting for a termination meeting can be crucial in preventing an unexpected charge—false imprisonment. To avoid unfounded false imprisonment charges, make certain termination meetings are private, yet open. Allow the employee to sit by the door, with nothing blocking her exit …

Paying back ‘Borrowed’ vacation leave

03/01/2008

Q. We allow our employees to “borrow” unearned vacation time. Our policy provides that if employees quit or are terminated with a “negative” vacation balance, the amount that they owe us for the vacation time taken before it was earned will be deducted from their final pay. Can we do this? …

File under: No such thing as a free lunch

03/01/2008
A Palatine man has been charged with theft by deception after he failed to report that the telecommunications company Avaya, had deposited paychecks totaling $469,000 into his checking account, despite the fact that he never worked there …

Wage assignment and employers’ responsibilities

03/01/2008

Tough economic times raise some tricky HR issues—for example, when an employee’s financial straits begin to affect his employer …

Brown sues drywall company for $5 million in W&H violations

03/01/2008
California’s attorney general recently filed suit against a Southern California drywall contracting firm for what he called “a sophisticated and heartless scheme” to cheat its employees out of wages. Attorney General Jerry Brown sued Irvine-based Interwall Development Systems, claiming that it failed to pay its employees overtime …

Paycheck stubs’ new look for 2008

03/01/2008
Q. Are there new requirements regarding the type of information that should be included on an employee’s pay statement? …