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The effects of impending minimum wage increases

by Cornell Bang The effort to increase the minimum wage at the federal, state, and municipal level continues to gain momentum. At the municipal level, Los Angeles voted in 2015 to increase its minimum wage from $9 an hour to $15 by 2020, San Francisco voted in 2014 to raise its minimum wage from $12.25 […]

Choose Your Words Carefully Regarding Mental Health

With or without sensitivity training, most people try to be considerate when speaking with someone with a physical disability or a health condition, and they choose their words carefully so as not to offend the individual. However, these same considerate people often forget that things can be said—or not said—which can hurt the feelings of […]

Secrets to making reference-based pricing work

In order for reference-based pricing to work, health plan sponsors should do it in a way that involves implementing best practices for cost analysis, claim repricing, plan design, patient advocacy (including balance billing protection when necessary), and member education. Ways to Make RBP Succeed Employers, administrators, brokers and courts have begun to realize that determining the value […]

What’s Better than Cash Compensation? Almost Anything!

By Bryan Van Noy Yesterday we heard from cofounder of Sonic Boom Wellness, Bryan Van Noy, about some of the major reasons cash compensation isn’t cutting it these days. Today we’ll hear a bit more about that, plus some basic alternative ideas. Cash Compensation Is Coercive and Manipulative For employers hoping to change employee health […]

How Do FMLA and ADA Impact Your Attendance Policies?

A key part of an employer’s attendance policy is setting objective criteria for when excessive absenteeism requires disciplinary intervention. But how does employee leave taken under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) factor into your attendance policies and disciplinary practices?

FMLA: Does Texting Apply Under Call-In Policy?

By Steve Jones If you have an attendance policy that requires employees to follow a certain procedure to notify management of absences but you occasionally receive notice in a way that isn’t specified in the policy (e.g., a text instead of a phone call), you should make sure you’re consistent in accepting or refusing the […]

4 More Flaws of Performance Management

Yesterday’s Advisor reviewed 6 of 10 flaws that can afflict typical performance management systems; today, we present the final four pitfalls to avoid while you’re assessing employees during appraisals.

Fiduciary Duties Are Myriad, So Safeguards Matter

Monitoring the performance of service providers, making required disclosures to participants and beneficiaries, keeping good records and filing reports with the government are just a few of the important functions a fiduciary must ensure are properly executed, an enforcement official at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration unit told a group of […]