Tag: benefits

What is Employee Advocacy?

Have you heard of employee advocacy? In simple terms, employee advocacy refers to the act of employees promoting the company through their own personal actions and through their own networks. This is often on social media. It is separate from paying employees to promote the organization (such as hiring a social media manager).

HIPAA

HIPAA Experts Highlight Recent ‘Spike’ in Enforcement

A recent surge in monetary Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) settlements is altering the compliance landscape at a time when new technical and legal challenges also are coming into play, practitioners and regulators told a recent conference.

COBRA

Appeals Court: Same-Sex Spouse Had No COBRA Notice Claim

by Gwen Cofield To have standing to sue an employer for a Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) notice violation, the individual alleging the violation must be either a participant or a beneficiary, as those terms are defined in Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). COBRA coverage is designed to continue, for a limited time, […]

Paid Leave: Coming to a Jurisdiction Near You?

Although the federal government may not go for paid leave, many entities and jurisdictions are taking it up on their own, says Susan G. Fentin, a partner with Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C. in Springfield, Massachusetts. Fentin’s Commonwealth of Massachusetts does have a paid leave law, and she shared her perspective on paid leave at […]

vacation

Unlimited Vacation Time—California Here We Come!

Should you consider this Silicon Valley trend that’s spreading across the United States? Attorney Susan Fentin, a partner with Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C., in Springfield, Massachusetts, offered her take on unlimited vacation at BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, held recently in Las Vegas.

IRS Again Leaves Most Annual Retirement Plan Limits Unchanged

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) again left most annual threshold and benefit levels unchanged when it announced them for 2017 on October 27, 2016. Employers and retirement plan administrators can apply the new rates as they prepare their plans for next year and conduct nondiscrimination testing. Notice 2016-62 laid out the latest changes to cost-of-living […]

Transitioning Employees to Retirees

If you’re like many employers and have Baby Boomers in your workforce, you may be thinking about how you’re going to replace all that organizational knowledge as they retire. If that’s what’s on your mind, then it’s time to dust off that succession plan and get busy capturing all that knowledge. This article, however, is […]

Awesome Work Perk Gets Retired

What could possibly be better than working at a brewery? Perhaps getting free, lifetime beer from said brewery, which was the case for one Canadian brewery … until it recently decided to do away with the perk.

benefits

Survey: Over 50% of Workers Open to Leaving Their Current Employers

As the economy continues to improve, so do the chances of your employees looking for new job opportunities. A recent survey from Aon Hewitt, the global talent, retirement and health solutions business of Aon plc, finds 52% of employees are open to leaving their current employers for new opportunities. Of these employees, 44% are actively […]

Maryland

EEOC Seeks Enhanced Damages for Age Discrimination in Benefits Calculations

by Kevin C. McCormick, JD, Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP In a significant decision, The U.S. district court in Baltimore declined to award the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) retroactive or prospective monetary relief in an age discrimination case in which the agency claimed that Baltimore County had improperly calculated pension fund contributions.