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Wages & Hours

Philly councilman wants restaurants to remit full tips

05/27/2011
Philadelphia Councilman Jim Kenney has a bone to pick with some city restaurants. When customers charge their meals, he claims the restaurants deduct from waiters’ tips the credit-card processing fees businesses must pay. Kenney has introduced a bill in the City Council to bar the practice.

Levies and garnishments: Tough questions

05/26/2011
Question: An employee who has child support withheld from his pay declared bankruptcy. We received a bankruptcy order that requires us to withhold $330 monthly. However, the Consumer Credit Protection Act says not more than 50% of an employee’s disposable pay can be withheld for child support. The bankruptcy trustee said that the 50% limit doesn’t apply, but this seems wrong to us. Who’s correct?

What are California’s rules on lactation breaks?

05/20/2011
Q. Are we required to give our employees additional rest breaks in order to express breast milk?

Given California’s strict break rules, can employees work through lunch?

05/20/2011
Q. We give our employees the opportunity to take up to a one-hour lunch break every day. However, several of our employees have requested to work through their lunch break in order to leave work earlier. Is this legal?

The 8 most common overtime errors and how to fix them

05/17/2011
If your company is like most and cutting costs is a top priority, reducing overtime expenditures can make a big difference. Be careful with how you go about reining in overtime, though. Here are the eight most common OT errors you must avoid.

E-pay progress: Make the move to pay cards

05/16/2011
Is your direct deposit campaign a little long in the tooth? Now may be the best time to update your compensation sys­tem by adding pay cards to the mix. But before you call your payroll provider or bank to set up a pay card option, understand that there are legal and practical pitfalls you must avoid.

Court: Compensation based on employees’ market value may correct past pay bias

05/13/2011
Ever since Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, employers have had to struggle with evaluating their compensation plans to make sure they aren’t perpetuating past pay discrimination. Now a federal judge has suggested that a better approach to fixing the problem may be found in the free market. If employers use the market value of jobs as a major factor in setting compensation, then even those whose pay is lower than it would be without past discrimination will be paid fairly because their increases will be greater.

Set salaries with help from most reputable web sites

05/12/2011
As hiring picks up due to the firming economy, organizations want to offer competitive salaries that aren’t inordinately lower or higher than those available from competitors. Here are the most reputable web sites that track pay for hundreds of professions and specialties.

It’s legit: Use differences in location and responsibilities to justify variable pay scales

05/11/2011

Here’s something to consider when setting pay rates for jobs in different locations and with slightly different responsibilities: Under the Equal Pay Act, employers can set different salaries based on geographically distinct job locations.

Use tip credit for some pay? Beware requiring ‘substantial’ work that doesn’t generate tips

05/11/2011
Employers must be careful not to give tipped employees too many additional duties to complete before, during or after their tip-generating activities. If more than about 20% of their time is spent on such activities, you may have to pay them the full minimum wage for those hours, regardless of how much they earn in tips during the shift.