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Who’s Offering What for Holidays and PTO? Survey Results Reveal All

What holidays are offered to employees in 2011? Number Percent Saturday January 1, 2011 (New Year’s Day) 777 88% Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 235 27% Lincoln‘s Birthday 9 1% Washington’s Birthday/President’s Day 267 30% Good Friday 212 24% Memorial Day 836 95% Independence Day 840 95% Labor Day 825 94% Rosh Hashana 7 1% […]

Your Employees Are PRAYING For a Big Verdict: Understanding Religious Accommodation Issues

Note: This very interesting post is by attorney Allison West, principal of Employment Practices Specialists, in Pacifica, Calif. Thank you, Allison for contributing this to our blog. See below for more about Allison, and a Thompson Interactive Webinar she will be giving on this topic. So, what is a religion, anyway? Not surprising, countless religions exist […]

Should You Be Offering Benefits to Domestic Partners? Let’s Find Out

The rise in acceptance of domestic partnerships, both by law and choice has led to a lot of tricky challenges for HR managers who have to administer benefits programs. Who gets benefits and what benefits do they get? Let’s find out. Please participate in this brief survey and we’ll determine just what employers are offering […]

Should You Be Offering Benefits to Domestic Partners? Let’s Find Out

By Stephen D. Bruce, PHREditor, HR Daily Advisor For years, BLR has surveyed comp and benefits professionals to find trends in benefits. We appreciate your participation in our monthly series of brief, targeted benefits surveys. Today’s survey topic: Domestic Partner Benefits. (We’ll publish the results in a future issue.) The rise in acceptance of domestic […]

IRS Lists Nonbank Trustees and Custodians for HSAs

The IRS has just given you a hand in better enabling your employees to establish health savings accounts (HSAs). The IRS on Aug. 30 issued Announcement 2011-59, which includes a list of entities the IRS has approved to serve as nonbank trustees and custodians of HSAs. Under Code Section 223, which sets the rules for […]

Cell Phones, Transportation Fringes on IRS To-do List

The IRS’ “to do” list includes writing up a notice on cell phone substantiation and finalizing guidance on debit cards used with qualified transportation fringe benefits (QTFBs), according to its 2011-2012 priority guidance plan published Sept. 2. Smart Cards The IRS lists 29 items under the heading, “executive compensation, health care and other benefits and […]

Awesome!

With just two weeks to go until the new season begins, I wanted to make sure we give proper attention to another potential candidate for Michael’s position (once Robert California vacates it and proceeds to rule the Company and then the world) — Kelly Kapoor. She has gone through a number of transformations since slapping Michael […]

Despite Phony Divorces, Pension Plan Must Pay Spousal Benefits

Retirement plan administrators do not have the authority to conclude that a domestic relations order (DRO) is not qualified because it is based on a “sham” divorce, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided July 18, 2011. The 5th Circuit stated that a key ERISA section “does not authorize an administrator to consider or […]

Self-Funded Health Plan Can’t Shake Down Providers for Benefits Paid for Non-Enrollee

The sponsor of a self-funded health plan cannot escape its responsibility to ensure that only fully eligible people are enrolled. Illustrating this maxim is a self-funded plan’s sad quest to recover gigantic sums from health providers for services it paid on behalf of a non-beneficiary. The plan paid more than $1 million in claims for a […]

Never Uncapped, Short and Long Term, with Clawbacks

 “We’ve looked at hundreds of companies’ plans,” Dolmat-Connell says “I guess if you could boil it down, there are three key pieces of advice.” (Dolmat-Connell is president and CEO of compensation experts DolmatConnell, & Partners in Boston, Massachusetts.) First of all, he says, make sure you don’t have uncapped plans. Second, make sure you balance […]