Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
President Barack Obama’s Executive Order raising the minimum wage for federal contractors and subcontractors is set to take effect for all federal contracts beginning on or after January 1. Obama signed Executive Order 13658 on February 12. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced the final rule implementing the order on October 1. The DOL […]
Are you treating your pregnant employees properly? Do you have to offer them an accommodation? There’s been a flurry of action around treatment of pregnant employees under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, some of which has been confusing. The PDA says you have to treat pregnant employees in the same manner you treat other employees who […]
by Daniel Pugen McCarthy Tetrault Workplace violence has become a hot topic among labor, employment, and health and safety regulators in Canada. Of course, workplace violence is hardly a new phenomenon. Certain workers like police officers have an inherent risk of workplace violence. Also, put enough people in an enclosed area under stressful conditions (i.e., […]
by Kevin C. McCormick Maryland’s new law allowing same-sex marriage takes effect January 1, 2013, meaning employers need to understand what changes are in store for the workplace. The General Assembly passed the law legalizing same-sex marriage that Governor Martin O’Malley signed on March 12, 2012. However, the new law was on hold until Maryland […]
The departments implementing health reform can turn around a project when they are under the gun. Responding to concerns that the new “summary of benefits and coverage” (SBC) mandated by the health reform law is redundant, HHS, DOL and Treasury/IRS quickly turned around a final rule that eases some SBC requirements. The final rule and […]
The retirement plan you sponsor comes along with some serious responsibilities. Among those is the duty to understand and evaluate fees paid on behalf of the plan. You may use benchmarking data to determine whether those fees are reasonable.
The U.S. unemployment rate is at its lowest in years, and there’s a growing demand for blue-collar workers, with many workers turning to gig opportunities—a sector that is booming right now. Rather than freelance work and creative services—like white-collar gig work—blue-collar gig work focuses on labor, manufacturing, warehouse, and delivery jobs and is often temporary.
Tragically, stuntman John Bernecker died last week in Atlanta after falling 30 feet to a concrete floor while working on a fight scene for AMC’s zombie-apocalypse series “The Walking Dead.” In response, the show temporarily halted production of its eighth season, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) opened an investigation. According to OSHA, […]
Target-date funds’ popularity over the last 10 years has soared, among both plan sponsors and participants, so odds are your plan offers these as an investment option. Their wide acceptance after being designated an eligible qualified default investment alternative for automatically enrolled new participants seems likely to guarantee their ultimate presence in most plans. A […]
Imaging you run a health plan and you’re responsible for preventing overpayments for ineligible beneficiaries. Dependent audits sound like a good idea, but when and how do you do them? Do you think it is better to do a proactive dependent audit to catch improper free riders before they incur big charges or would you […]