Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Both chambers of Congress have approved legislation that will extend the deadline for filing a pay-bias complaint under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The House voted 250 to 177 in favor of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (S 181) today. The Senate approved the legislation last week. President Barack Obama […]
Pregnant employees are entitled to workplace accommodations, according to new guidance issued July 14 by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Because the Pregnancy Discrimination Act requires that employers treat pregnant employees the same as other workers “not so affected but similar in their ability or inability to work” — and because the Americans with […]
These days, employers need to put their compensation plan through the same thorough analysis as their capital spending, pricing and other elements of strategic planning Senior managers who think a compensation plan just salary and benefits, and don’t let their HR professionals view the plan in a wider way, may be shorting themselves by ignoring […]
Eighty-one years ago, California passed a law requiring contractors on “public works” projects to pay the general prevailing rate of wages to all workers. One year later, the California Supreme Court determined that wage rates for workers on locally funded public works projects are a “municipal affair” and not subject to California’s prevailing wage law.
The first step in tackling any problem is to understand it. Henry Neils, who heads an organization known as the International Assessment Network, has identified 13 signs of work-related burnout: 1. Chronic fatigue (exhaustion, tiredness, a sense of being physically run-down) 2. Anger at those making demands 2. Self-criticism for putting up with the demands […]
Telecommuting allows employees to work part or all of their standard workweek from a remote location, “seamlessly commuting” by e-mail, cell phones, and virtual private networks. (Editor’s note: It’s not always “seamless.”)
Should our company use job descriptions? How long should they be, and what information should they contain? Do they really serve a useful purpose? Employers’ attorneys get those questions all the time, and the answer is always the same: Yes.
Hiring even one new employee invokes no fewer than seven federal laws and several state laws as well, says attorney Stephen R. Woods. How does an employer navigate this legal minefield? Woods, a shareholder with the national law firm of Ogletree Deakins, offered two tips at a recent BLR Employment Law Update conference in Las […]
Latino employees at an Arizona community college were understandably offended when a professor broadly distributed e-mail messages exalting the “superiority of Western Civilization” and deriding the contributions of nonwhite immigrants and Native Americans. But did the professor’s messages create a racially hostile work environment? The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Alaska, Arizona, […]
Implicit bias is difficult to combat. The primary challenge is that people harboring implicit bias—also referred to as unconscious bias—are by definition unaware that they have such biases.