Category: Benefits and Compensation
This topic provides guidance on how to handle compensation issues in a way that attracts and retains the best talent and advances the strategic goals of your business. You get news and tips on what’s going on nationally and in the states, and updates on changes in regulations, possible governmental action, and emerging compensation trends.
The U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) has added two more conditions to the list of early warning factors that it watches and believes may endanger the funding of single-employer defined benefit (DB) retirement plans.
Would your employees say they are paid fairly? A perception of fair pay is imperative in employee retention. On the flip side, a perception of unfair pay can be a powerful motivator for employees to leave the company.
Question: We provide employees the option to take a lump sum cash payment ($1,000/yr) in lieu of accepting benefits, payable in increments over each pay period. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has indicated those payments should be included in the base wage for purposes of calculating overtime (see Flores v. City […]
February brings with it a number of holidays and observances, from Groundhog Day and President’s Day in the U.S. to Valentine’s Day throughout the world. But as we celebrate love, Washington’s birthday, and everyone’s favorite groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, a national health observance goes unnoticed by most.
Employee handbooks are recommended for several reasons, including that they set forth key company policies. Well-written handbook policies state how compensation will be addressed and who has the power to bind the company. In a recent case, the Appellate Division, 1st Department, held that a company’s handbook was enough to defeat an employee’s claim to compensation based on oral promises.
California’s Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) has made multiple attempts to reduce workers’ compensation costs to employers and to improve compensation paid to workers. One persistent obstacle to cost containment is fraud, and the DIR has poured considerable resources into combating fraudulent worker claims, premium fraud, and most recently, provider fraud. In January, the DIR […]
A plan sponsor organization is asking the Trump administration for immediate relief from the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) employer reporting requirements.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on February 9 filed a notice delaying the April 10 applicability date of its rule broadening the definition of a fiduciary. The move was expected after President Donald Trump on February 3 signed a memorandum requesting the agency to postpone and re-examine the rule on investment advice.
Payments that an employer makes to an employee under a fixed indemnity health plan must be included in the employee’s taxable income, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently indicated, if the plan premiums were paid by the employer or by salary reduction under a cafeteria plan.
As part of the Dodd-Frank Act, public companies will soon be subject to CEO pay ratio disclosure requirements. Starting with reporting for any fiscal year that begins on or after January 1, 2017, these organizations will have to disclose not only the CEO annual total compensation, but also the total annual compensation of the median […]