Category: Benefits and Compensation

This topic provides guidance on how to handle compensation issues in a way that attracts and retains the best talent and advances the strategic goals of your business. You get news and tips on what’s going on nationally and in the states, and updates on changes in regulations, possible governmental action, and emerging compensation trends.

State Regulators Find Inconsistencies in Broker-dealer Disclosure Practices

A survey by an association of North American state and provincial securities regulators that found numerous inconsistencies in how broker-dealers disclose fees to customers adds weight to calls from federal regulators for service providers to furnish fee guides to employer retirement plan sponsors. “[W]ide disparity among firms in the way fees were disclosed” was reported […]

Out of PTO, Can’t Deduct, What Can You Do?

Here’s how to approach the situation: First, if it is important for the employees to be in the office during consistent work hours, make sure that is explained in a written policy. If the policy does not yet exist, create it if this is critical to your business. Make it part of the employee handbook […]

When Exempt Employee Has No PTO, Takes Time Off

PTO helps to bridge the gap between being required to pay salaried employees their full salary in a given workweek (even if they don’t work a full workweek), while also balancing how much time off can be taken without it becoming a problem. Employers often find themselves in a conundrum, however, over how to handle […]

CMS: Waiting Periods on Essential Benefits May Be Discrimination

Employer-sponsored health plans and insurers got a double dose of compliance advice on May 16 from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services in the form of a set of Frequently Asked Questions. The first FAQ clarifies that insurers in the individual and small group market may not impose waiting periods on specific essential health benefits. […]

FMLA Certification: Getting Clarification and Authentication

What should an employer do when an FMLA certification form is received that is unclear? Perhaps it's filled out completely, but the handwriting is illegible in some places. Or perhaps it appears as though it may have been filled out by someone other than the person who signed it. What actions can be taken without […]

FMLA Certification: Getting Clarification and Authentication

What should an employer do when an FMLA certification form is received that is unclear? Perhaps it's filled out completely, but the handwriting is illegible in some places. Or perhaps it appears as though it may have been filled out by someone other than the person who signed it. What actions can be taken without […]

Make Metrics Meaningful to Management

Metrics let people make decisions based on objective information rather than simply guessing or going by instinct. Metrics also let people know what is important to the organization, since a metric that is tracked will be analyzed. HR metrics have historically often focused on the past. For example, HR metrics often include things like turnover […]

Court Allows ERISA Plan to Deny Coverage to Same-Gender Spouse

A self-insured employer that explicitly excludes same-gender spouses from health plan coverage did not violate ERISA’s benefit interference or fiduciary breach provisions by having such exclusionary language, a federal district court in New York ruled. A same-gender couple had argued that, in light of U.S. v. Windsor, because the plan declined to cover the spouse, the employer interfered […]

Top 10: Compensation & Benefits Daily Advisor

9 Thinks You MUST NOT Include in Your Documentation Yesterday’s Advisor presented Attorney Franck Wobst’s key things you should include in documentation. Today, 9 things not to include, plus an introduction to Employee Compensation in Your State. Crimson Tide Coach Offers Seven Lessons for Every Manager Some of you might get tired of my use […]

Lessons in Commitment from the Restroom

The first man thinks it over for a minute. He then pulls his wallet out of his pocket, withdraws a $100 bill and tosses it into the urinal! The second man stands in amazement at what he has just seen. He asks, “What are you doing? Why would you do that? You just made your […]