Wages & Hours

W-2s: the gift that keeps on giving

11/18/2011

W-2s can give you aggravation, sleepless nights, you name it. Here are the critical due dates, as well as six common W-2 errors and easy tips to avoid them:

That’s not fair! Equity requires more than fair pay

11/10/2011

Conventional wisdom says that paying employees well goes a long way toward making them feel like they’re treated fairly. Not necessarily. Employees don’t consider pay or salary increases as the top factor in determining whether they are rewarded fairly, according to a new study.

Misclassification could cost Dayton cable firm $1.6 million

11/07/2011

A federal judge has sided with the U.S. Department of Labor in an employee misclassification lawsuit against Fairfield-based Cascom, which lays fiber-optic lines for Time Warner Cable in the Dayton area.

How to prevent costly FLSA mistakes with holiday pay & scheduling

11/03/2011

The time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s is a busy time for many HR departments. Questions regarding overtime, holiday pay and seasonal hires often arise. As long as you know the FLSA rules on holiday pay and holiday scheduling, you’ll skate through the season in good cheer.

When salaries differ within job classification, be prepared to offer data explaining why

11/01/2011

Smart employers document all the reasons for every rate of pay, in case someone later alleges some form of discrimination. That way, they’re prepared to justify exactly why one worker earns more or less than another similarly situated colleague.

Are we allowed to round off hours worked?

10/31/2011

Q, My company tracks the hours of nonexempt employees using a time clock. In determining their wages, can we round up or down to the nearest five-minute increment?

Fixing misclassification? Pay the right amount

10/25/2011

Sometimes, it becomes clear that an employee has been misclassified as exempt when she should really be an hourly employee. Employers that want to fix the situation can do so and avoid a lawsuit by offering the employee double her lost overtime pay, plus interest going back either two or three years depending on how the mistake happened.

Variable pay is where workers will get bigger bucks

10/25/2011

While employers are budgeting 2.9% more for base pay in 2012, 92% plan to distribute performance-based bonuses, according to an Aon Corp. survey of 1,500 companies.

Outback’s tip policy: No rules, just wrong

10/12/2011

Outback Steakhouse has agreed to pay $1.25 million to Minnesota employees to remedy what servers at the restaurant chain said was an illegal tip-pooling procedure under state law.

FLSA administrative exemption doesn’t require employee to meet all examples in regulation

10/11/2011

Here’s some good news for employers that classify workers as exempt under the FLSA’s administration exemption: Contrary to what some attorneys have been attempting to argue, employees don’t have to perform all the functions listed in the DOL regulations, just one.