Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
One of the odder add-ons to the health care reform law requires employers to provide nursing mothers with unpaid “reasonable break time” each work day to express breast milk for up to one year after a child’s birth. Section 4207 of the law amends the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to require employers to provide […]
According to multiple sources, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has changed the threshold for overtime exemption to around $47,000. When the DOL issued its proposed overtime regulations released in July 2015, the threshold was $50,440.
These days, you can’t open a newspaper or read an article online without hearing about the current talent shortage. In 2017, the unemployment rate hit a 17-year low of 4.1% in the fourth quarter. While this is good news for jobseekers, it has created big challenges for businesses that are trying to attract new talent. A […]
The U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear a case to resolve whether an ERISA health plan can recover money it spent on a plan participant’s care from his or her personal injury settlement, even if the participant has already spent those particular funds. To settle this question, the Court granted certiorari March 30 in Montanile v. Bd. of Trustees […]
by Darryl J. Lee, Wood Jenkins LLC Utah sends all of its incumbents back to the U.S. Congress, together with a new Tea Party constitutionalist, Republican Mike Lee, who easily won the open U.S. Senate seat vacated by Bob Bennett. (Bennett couldn’t make it out of Utah’s Republican caucus.) Jim Matheson, Utah’s one Democratic congressman, […]
States with employment-related ballot questions mostly approved them during the November 8 election, and employers have little lead time before many measures will be implemented. All told, 14 states have new provisions with which companies must comply, some as early as January 1, 2017. Minimum wage Arizona, Colorado, Maine, and Washington considered minimum wage increases […]
Time is running out for you to let us know how your company handles high potential employees (HiPos). Who are these employees? How do you identify them? What do you do once you know who they are? We want to know, and if you tell us, you can find out what your competitors said! Help […]
Retirement plan sponsors that have agreements with service providers should be aware of a recent appellate court decision that absolved such providers of fiduciary duty — if a plan trustee exercised final control over the terms of their agreement. Background In Santomenno v. John Hancock Life Insurance Co., 2014 WL 4783665 (3rd Cir. Sept. 26, […]
How do you craft a social media policy and internet use policy that helps to maintain your business image and reputation, your right to duty of loyalty, and your right to privacy without infringing upon your employees’ rights to privacy and freedom of expression? How specific do you need to be in your employee handbooks […]
Preliminary workplace fatality statistics for 2014 were recently released by California’s Department of Industrial Relations (DIR)—and they reflect a 16% decrease in workplace fatalities from the previous year. This is encouraging when compared with the preliminary data for the whole United States, which shows an increase of 2%.