Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Employers often use severance pay as a way to fend off possible lawsuits by departing employees. But here’s the catch: if you don’t require the employee to sign a waiver of all rights to sue you in exchange for the severance, you can be sued anyway. Whenever you offer severance an employee is not otherwise […]
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (also known as “financial reform” or “the Wall Street bill”) made headlines when President Barack Obama signed it into law on July 21. However, many employers probably don’t realize the legislation contains diversity provisions that could affect them if they are contractors, subcontractors, or service providers […]
In August, U.S. combat troops left Iraq, and President Barack Obama has said the military will start pulling troops from Afghanistan in July 2011. With this steady stream of military veterans coming back, inevitably some will end up in your application pools. Previously, we have discussed why hiring veterans makes sense. Now, the U.S. Department […]
Defending against an employee’s claim for overtime that you didn’t even know they had worked can be frustrating and expensive. And if you lose, you could be on the hook for up to three years of back overtime plus penalties. We’ll review a recent case involving a Fresno employer who managed to win this type […]
By BLR Founder and Publisher Bob Brady Contrary as it may sound, the best way to grow might just be to define limits, says BLR’s CEO. Most of my experience as a manager has involved getting a handle on quickly changing processes. During one 5-year period, we grew from 10 people to 150, going from […]
On February 4, 2026, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed suit against Nike in the Eastern District of Missouri, claiming the company had not complied with the agency’s requests for information in its investigation that it discriminated against white employees and applicants. The case was filed in Missouri because the EEOC’s St. Louis office […]
A disaster or tragedy is not over for workers simply because the event has ended, says the American Psychological Association. While humans are remarkably resilient, not everyone bounces back from a dreadful event with equal speed. As many as 20 percent of catastrophe survivors develop full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder, a clinical condition characterized by flashbacks, […]
How health insurance exchange money is spent, which private insurance products may be offered on exchanges, who advises exchange consumers on plan choices and how well exchanges handle personal data will be under federal scrutiny, as explained in proposed program integrity rules issued by CMS on June 17. The rules also propose tweaks to existing regulatory language […]
According to a new IRS notice, leave donated by an employee to a qualified employer-sponsored leave bank following a major disaster is not considered income to the donating employee, as long as the leave received by an affected employee is treated as wages for purposes of FICA, FUTA, and income tax withholding. Our HR Management […]
Our dress code says females working in the office cannot wear pants. One of our ladies says that in California, women have a “right to wear pants.” Is this true?