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In Search of (Divine) Comedy

Last week’s post lamented the August heat (call it an inferno) many parts of the country are enduring, while looking ahead wistfully to the promised land (call it a paradise) of a new season for The Office.  In the midst of this entertainment limbo, I took the suggestion of a fellow blogger and sought inspirational […]

Congress Limits ‘Substantial Cessation of Operations’ Liability

Congress has come to the aid of single-employer defined benefit retirement plans concerned about the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.’s power to assert liability on them when changing business operations affect their plan participants. As part of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (within the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act 2015, known as […]

Want Benefit Savings? Take a Close Look at Your PBM

Looking for healthcare savings? (Who isn’t?) Start with a look at your prescription drug costs, says Scott Haas, CLU, RHU, vice president of Wells Fargo Pharmacy Consulting. Haas and his colleagues sought a way to get drug costs down for clients. They peered beneath the surface and didn’t like what they found, Haas said in […]

What Does Hertz Have Against Grandma?

Last week, my wife’s grandmother passed away at 98 years of age. She was a special lady who remained alert and curious until her last days. She was active on Facebook, keeping up with her great-grandchildren’s lives. So my family and I made the trip back to the Midwest for the funeral. Landing at the […]

Pie-in-the-Sky Recruiting? Get Real!

“I want someone from the top of the class at a top business school, who has advanced rapidly at a fast-growing, respected firm (but I want to pay an entry-level salary).” That’s pie-in-the-sky recruiting—spinning your wheels with no results. In yesterday’s Advisor, we covered the first five prehire necessities. Today, we look at five more, […]

Social Media: NLRB Says Employees’ Job Complaints on Facebook Are Protected

An employer violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by firing five employees who complained on Facebook — off-hours — about their jobs, an administrative law judge for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) held. So the employer must do penance by rehiring them and making them whole for any loss of earnings and other […]

Retirement Plans Advised Not to Push Loan Access

Defined contribution plan participants who take out plan loans are more likely saving at a lower contribution rate than most, and are not likely to repay the loan when they leave their employer. This according to a new report based on research from New York Life Retirement Plan Services’ DC data. With those factors in […]

Quitting Before End of Notice Period: Lessons from B.C. Court of Appeal

By Hadiya Roderique Working notice — the default under many pieces of employment standards in Canada — can be a way to reduce an organization’s cost of termination of employment. But what happens when an employee quits in response to getting fired before the end of the notice period? And what happens when the working […]

U.S. Supreme Court Building

Supreme Court Upholds Healthcare Reform Law

By Jessica Webb-Ayer The wait is over: The U.S. Supreme Court has decided that the massive healthcare reform law (also known as the Affordable Care Act, or ACA) enacted in March 2010 is constitutional. So what happened, and what does this mean for employers? Read the Supreme Court’s decision on Health Care Reform The most […]