Archives

Preventable Employee Expense Reimbursement Missteps

Yesterday, attorney Julia Melnicoe explained some of the most common—and dangerous—wage and hour myths and misconceptions that California employers fall prey to. Today, the rest of the list—plus an introduction to a webinar next week you won’t want to miss. Melnicoe is an attorney at the San Francisco office of Sedgwick LLP. For #s 1-6, […]

Wellness Programs Tackle Number 2 Killer

In yesterday’s Advisor, we learned how to knock out the largest source of deaths; today we’ll look at the #2 killer, cancer, and also the ADA issues that wellness programs raise. About a third of us get cancer and about 20 percent of us die of it, so in theory that makes cancer about half […]

FLSA and Overtime: Overtime Calculation Has Complexities

When it comes to meeting your Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and overtime obligations, how confident are you that you’re calculating overtime correctly? In a BLR webinar titled “Calculating Overtime: HR’s How-To Guide for FLSA Compliance,” Kara E. Shea outlined some tips on how to understand the correct overtime calculations and meet your FLSA and […]

Experts See Trend Against Self-funding in State Stop-loss Restrictions

While ERISA self-insured plans themselves are not subject to state regulation, states are clamping down on stop-loss coverage as a way to discourage self-funding, say attorney Ron Peck and legal administrator Chris Aguiar at the Phia Group, Braintree, Mass. The Texas Supreme Court ruling in TDI v American National Ins. Co. and the passage by […]

Seven Steps to Meaningful Market Pricing

Strand, owner of consultancy HR Dynamics Inc., offered his seven steps to successful market pricing at a recent webinar hosted by BLR/HRhero. 1. Identify Positions to Market-Price Ideally you’d like market data on all your positions, says Strand; however, in reality, you will probably obtain data on a sample of your positions, perhaps 30 to […]

Employer Goes Ballistic When Off-Duty Offense Goes Viral

By: Elaine Quayle It’s bad enough when an employee behaves badly on a business trip—but it’s even worse when the incident is videoed and goes viral internationally! Media reports say that Oleg Vedernikov, principal cellist with the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, was traveling with the orchestra by train when he propped up his bare feet on […]

Meet, Lead, or Lag the Market?

Strand, owner of consultancy HR Dynamics Inc., offered his seven steps to successful market pricing at a recent webinar hosted by BLR/HRhero. [Go here for steps 1 to 4] 5. Choose Your Rate Let’s say that in analyzing market data, you come up with a market rate of $61,400 for an Office Manager position, and […]

How To Avoid the Worst California Wage and Hour Tripwires

While the landscape of employment law is always changing, certain wage and hour hazards remain constant. Many of these pitfalls include issues that seem insignificant at the individual employee level but if left unchecked can easily become massive liability risks that snowball into class actions and Private Attorney General Act (PAGA) claims.

Talking to older worker about retirement

Asking About Retirement: Is It Good Planning or a Legal Danger?

“Sea change,” “massive demographic revolution,” “boomer brain drain.” They are terms  economists and sociologists use when discussing the aging of the baby boomer generation – children born between 1946 to 1964. Countless volumes have been written about what will happen as the more than 78 million boomers age and leave the workforce. Despite all the […]

Knowing Multiple Exemption Rules Can Enhance FLSA Litigation Strategies

Employees can qualify for multiple exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act, so employers should remember that if they document an employee’s specific exemption, they should note any and all applicable exemptions, so that they are able to argue multiple exemptions in any FLSA litigation. This principle is illustrated in Schaefer La-Rose v. Eli Lilly […]