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Payroll

Minimum wage for federal contractors goes up in 2019

10/10/2018
Effective Jan. 1, 2019, employers performing work on federal contracts must pay workers $10.60 per hour.

What rules apply for paying an employee who has passed away?

10/03/2018
Q. If a worker dies, could we still have to pay his or her wages earned before the time of his or her death?

What are the rules for paying an employee who cannot be located?

10/03/2018
Q. One of our workers has gone missing. Could we still have to pay him for the time he worked before he disappeared?

Cheaper retirement plans are just around the corner

09/24/2018
Final regulations issued by the Department of Labor, which became effective Sept. 30, 2019, allow employers to band together to offer association 401(k) plans, technically called “multiple-employer retirement plans.”

ACA affordability safe harbors set for 2020 plan year

09/24/2018
For the 2020 plan year, group health plans are affordable if employees’ monthly premiums don’t exceed 9.78% of your chosen safe harbor.

Special analysis: Hot job market + cool fringes = Payroll headaches

09/24/2018
The unemployment rate hasn’t been this low in more than 50 years. So HR is tasked with coming up with fringe benefits that will incentivize new hires to sign on and entice current employees to stay. Too bad they didn’t consult you first.

SSA reinstates employer no-match letters

09/24/2018
The Social Security Administration is again sending no-match letters, called Educational Correspondence Announcements, to employers that file W-2s on which employees’ names and Social Security numbers don’t match its records. Warning: W-2s with these mismatches may also garner penalties from the IRS.

Accurate pay statements: your responsibility

08/27/2018
It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure employees receive accurate wage statements with each paycheck. That’s true even if the employee hasn’t provided an accurate accounting of time worked.

Employee gets to prove OT claim, employer’s willfulness

08/16/2018
“I didn’t know an employee worked overtime” won’t get you far if a manager flouts the overtime rules, a federal trial court has held. Worse: The court is letting a jury decide whether the employer acted willfully when it failed to pay overtime to the employee.

How to successfully navigate payroll overpayments

08/16/2018
Recouping overpayments from employees can be a good experience, but often isn’t. Here’s some guidance from Barbara Youngman and LaTisha O’Neal to attendees at the American Payroll Association’s 36 Annual Congress in May.