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Payroll

Time to pre-worry about this year’s W-2s

08/21/2024
Payroll is full of worry, and it only gets more intense as the year winds down. Here are some things you can do to ensure your year-end process runs as smoothly as possible.

Travel time & money: Lessons for employers

08/20/2024
Tracking working time and reimbursing nonexempt employees for their traveling expenses can be difficult tasks. Fail to do both and you’ll end up in the middle seat on a long flight to nowhere. Two cases illustrate.

Metrics: More than numbers and crucial to track

07/31/2024
You need metrics, as this data provides powerful information and information is power. Metrics can show how managers manage, track terminations and employee morale, support decision-making (e.g., having the data to justify a new hire) and identify trends. All of this makes the payroll department a key corporate player.

September 2024: Employer’s business tax calendar

07/31/2024
Here’s your monthly guide to critical payroll due dates.

Prepare to pay for time spent waiting to log in, sign off

07/26/2024
A federal appeals court recently reminded a lower court that the FLSA requires paying hourly workers for all time spent working on their employer’s behalf—unless pre- and post-shift activities are so inconsequential that they constitute de minimis time.

Yucky pink medicine!

07/17/2024
The Fair Labor Standards Act doesn’t cover employees who take time off for school visits, so the regular rules apply—you don’t have to pay nonexempts for time they’re not working. You also don’t have to pay exempts who take full days off as personal time. In both cases, employees may use their accrued time off, if they have any.

In the Payroll Mailbag: August 2024

07/17/2024
Are power outages compensable nonexempt experiences? … What are the docking rules for salaried nonexempts? … What’s the best timekeeping method for new nonexempts?

Paging all humans: The FLSA & the FMLA still need you

07/17/2024
Artificial intelligence has taken firm hold in American workplaces. By far, the focus is on how generative AI will either streamline tasks or supplant employees altogether. The Department of Labor isn’t buying the employees-will-soon-be-replaced talk. Human oversight is still necessary to the proper functioning of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act, the DOL concluded.

Mass transit benefits can be rolled over, but not refunded

07/17/2024
Mass transit benefits are part of a suite of benefits falling into the category of tax-favored qualified transportation fringe benefits. Unused QTF benefits never expire, even benefits employees paid for on a pretax basis in prior calendar years. Instead, employees can keep rolling over unused benefits until they’re used up. This is important, since the IRS has concluded that unused QTF benefits can’t be refunded to an employee.

Bring summer dog days to heel

07/17/2024
Dog days of summer slowing you down? You can tame this beast by keeping busy. Take some time now to make sure your i’s are dotted and your t’s are crossed.