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The Internal Revenue Service has postponed indefinitely a plan to begin collecting Social Security taxes on two types of stock options. Industry groups had complained that the proposed 15.3% tax would be detrimental to incentive stock options and employee stock purchase plans. The payroll taxes, which fund Social Security and Medicare, would be divided between […]
The California Department of Insurance has approved a 10.1% hike in the average workers’ compensation pure premium rates. The increase takes effect July 1, 2002, and follows on the heels of a 10.2% increase that took effect in January 2002. Although the pure premium rate is only advisory and insurers aren’t required to follow the […]
Seeking to clear up confusion arising from the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that undocumented workers who are victims of unfair labor practices aren’t entitled to recover back pay, the California Department of Industrial Relations has released a statement clarifying its wage enforcement policy. The department’s position is that all California workers—whether or not they’re legally […]
Under an obscure law, certain employers that provide free parking must give cash to workers who don’t drive to work. The law applies to employers with 50 or more employees who are located in an area that violates air quality standards and who subsidize employee parking spaces the employer doesn’t own. But a new study […]
A new report from the U.S. Department of Labor finds that 28.8% of the nation’s full-time employees now have flexible work schedules that permit them to vary the time they start or end work—nearly double the number of flex-time workers a decade ago. Managers, professionals and sales employees were the most likely to be able […]
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has released two new useful publications to address workplace health and safety risks. First, OSHA has a new guide to help international business travelers avoid health risks. You can download the guide on the OSHA website. Second, OSHA has prepared a Heat Stress Card, which contains valuable information for […]
The U.S. Supreme Court recently released a double feature for employers, publishing two decisions with significant workplace implications. Read on to learn about what these cases mean to you.
In 1998, Wells Fargo Bank merged with Northwest Bank. Under Wells Fargo’s sick leave policy before the merger, employees earned one sick day a month, and unused sick days could be carried to the next year. At the time, employees also earned a certain amount of paid vacation days a year, which could be carried […]
Not giving workers proper notice of their COBRA rights can have potentially expensive consequences for employers—including having to pay an employee’s uncovered medical bills, attorneys’ fees and penalties. But what happens if you do everything right—and yet the employee never receives the COBRA notice you sent out? A federal appeals court decision looks at this […]
Several years ago, the California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board ruled that it’s illegal to terminate an injured worker’s health benefits unless you can show a legitimate business reason for doing so. But now the board has ruled that you can cut off health benefits for an employee out on workers’ comp leave so long as […]