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.

IRS: Bike-share Is Not a Qualified Transport Fringe Benefit

Bicycle share expenses — incurred, for example, when one dips a credit card into a pay kiosk on the street in order to rent a bicycle from a public bike rack — do not qualify as payment for transportation on “mass transit facilities,” as some have argued, nor do they constitute a “qualified bicycle commuting […]

Employee Leave Survey Results In—How Do You Compare?

  Personal or “small necessities” leave is offered by 30% of respondents. 99.6% offer 6 or more paid holidays. 29.4% allow some form of leave donation or leave sharing. Scheduling workloads around leave is the biggest challenge.   Leave Types Leave offered Percent offering 6 or more paid holidays per year 99.6% Paid vacation time, […]

Calif. Law Restricting Stop-loss Approved

Legislation designed to make it more difficult for smaller employers to self-insure by restricting their ability to obtain stop-loss insurance with very low attachment points was signed into law on Oct. 1 by California Gov. Jerry Brown. S.B. 161, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2014, will prohibit stop-loss insurers in California from issuing policies with specific […]

You Be the Judge on USERRA Cases—Who Wins?

USERRA Case Study 1: John Falsifies Paperwork The facts: John is a supervisory employee at a delivery company and is a longtime reservist and combat veteran. Here’s the scenario: John is told by a coworker that the company doesn’t like supervisors to serve in the reserves. His boss sends an internal e-mail that says, “John […]

Fidelity® Tax-Exempt Defined Contribution Business Doubles since 2008; Participant Growth Up 30 Percent

BOSTON, October 2, 2013 – Fidelity Investments®, a leading provider of workplace retirement plans in tax-exempt markets, today announced that Assets Under Administration (AUA) have doubled since the start of the financial crisis five years ago. Through the first half of 2013, Fidelity’s AUA has reached $204 billion, a 102 percent increase from 2008(i). Additionally, […]

USERRA Leave Hassles—‘I’m Bewildered’

Effland, a shareholder at the Indianapolis office of Ogletree Deakins PC, says that USERRA (Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act) offers two essential rights, the right to take leave, and the right to return. The basics of the law are: Coverage: Virtually all employers, regardless of the number of employees. Eligibility: Virtually all employees […]

Health Care Reform Spurs Government Shutdown

House Republican efforts to postpone, block and repeal Obamacare were key reasons for the federal government-shutdown crisis, under which 800,000 federal employees stayed home beginning Oct. 1. The House Republicans, whose opposition to Obamacare paralyzed spending bills, demanded that the administration acquiesce on two demands: postpone the “individual mandate” that individuals have federally approved minimum […]

Target-date Funds’ Popularity Heightens Transparency’s Importance

Nearly every defined contribution plan sponsor now offers target-date funds in its participant investment menu, as these funds, often named for the year a participant expects to retire, eliminate the need for employees to construct their own investment portfolio. A recently released white paper about TDFs examines plan fiduciaries’ uncertainly regarding what TDFs should contain […]

Green Circle Means Danger, Red Is Just Expensive

Red Circle employees indicate you are spending too much on compensation relative to the value of the jobs, says consultant Terry Pasteris, CCP, GRP, but Green Circles may set you up for a lawsuit. Pasteris’s comments came at a recent BLR-sponsored webinar. Red Circle employees are those who are paid over the maximum for the […]

More Delays in Health-reform Implementation; Oct. 1 Start for Exchanges Compromised

The federal agencies implementing health reform continue to delay aspects of roll-out, especially as they relate to state-based health insurance marketplaces (also called “exchanges”), which are supposed to be up and running on Oct. 1. The Obama White House announced on Sept. 27 that federally run health-insurance exchanges, required by health care reform, will not […]