Wages & Hours

Target to pay premium prices for holiday temps

09/18/2018

Target isn’t taking any chances as it staffs up for the holiday shopping season.

Snapshot: Less than 50% satisfied with comp & benefits

09/11/2018

Most U.S. employees are satisfied with their jobs and employers. Other than vacation leave, however, fewer than half are positive about pay and benefits.

2019 consensus emerging: Raises to average about 3%

08/28/2018

A new study brings the consensus about 2019 pay increases into sharper focus. The Willis Towers Watson consulting firm projects that U.S. employers will dole out raises averaging 3.1% next year.

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.

Time rounding must generally favor employees

08/27/2018

Under Department of Labor regulations covering the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers must pay workers for all time worked, subject to some rounding. Time may be kept, and pay computed, based on rounding “to the nearest 5 minutes, or to the nearest one-tenth or quarter of an hour.”

Snapshot: How much is that promotion worth?

08/21/2018

Average wages have grown just 2.8% since last year. But employees who won promotions saw their pay increase 8.7%.

Salaries flat in ’19, budgets increasing less than 3%

08/21/2018

As the job market continues to tighten, you’d think employers’ wallets would loosen up. But that’s not happening, at least not for broad increases in salary budgets.

Employees losing ground as inflation outstrips wage growth

08/14/2018

The “real wage” metric the federal government uses to gauge the average American’s take-home pay fell 2 cents in the last year, to $10.76 per hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

New tip rules: Prepare for a deep dive into the tip pool

08/06/2018

Employers have long been allowed to pay tipped employees less than the usual minimum wage. In some industries, tips have traditionally been pooled, so “back-of-the-house” staff can share in customers’ generosity. But the informality of tipping means it is a surprisingly complicated wage-and-hour issue.

Snapshot: Salary budgets inch upward

07/31/2018

U.S. employers are expected to budget for pay raises averaging 3.2% in 2019.