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California’s minimum wage going up on January 1

The minimum wage in California will rise to $10.50 an hour on January 1 for most employers thanks to a measure signed into law in April. Future incremental increases will put the state’s minimum wage at $15 an hour by January 2022 for employers with 26 or more employees. Smaller employers will have more time […]

Alert: CA minimum wage expected to increase

Last week, the California legislature passed a bill (AB 10) that will increase the minimum wage in California to $9.00 per hour effective July 1, 2014, and to $10.00 per hour effective January 1, 2016. Before the bill was passed, Governor Jerry Brown had indicated that he would sign it. The minimum wage in California is currently $8.00 per hour.

Employers Can Restrict Union Use of Company E-mail

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled that employers can prohibit employees from using company e-mail to send union-related messages while allowing some personal use of e-mail. In a 3-2 decision dated December 16 but released December 21, the NLRB majority ruled that the e-mail policy of Eugene, Oregon, newspaper The Register-Guard wasn’t a […]

Arizona voters will decide minimum wage, recreational marijuana proposals

by Dinita L. James Gonzalez Law, LLC On August 18 and 19, two Maricopa County Superior Court judges cleared the way for two voter initiatives with significant implications for Arizona employers to appear on the November ballot. One would raise the statewide minimum hourly wage to $10 on January 1, 2017, and the other would […]

Market Pricing and Salary Surveys, Part III

Which is better—job evaluation or market pricing? Though many see them as competing processes, a blend of the two offers more benefit because it balances the strengths and weaknesses of each. Click here to read more.  

Privacy: Can We Read Employees’ E-mails?

  What right do employers have to access personal e-mail records or personal e-mail accounts that are on company-owned computers? — Robert, HR Manager in L.A.     Technology-related privacy concerns are on the rise for nearly every HR professional. We sought Trey Wichmann’s views on this question. In this situation, the employer’s rights depend […]

The Pension Protection Act (PPA): New Opportunities for Employers

Massive revisions in the Pension Protection Act have opened the door to automatically enroll every employee or to pay retirement benefits even as senior members of your team keep working. Here’s what you need to know about these new PPA-driven opportunities. Employers are generally leery of anything coming out of Washington that affects them. But […]

It’s the Customer, Stupid

It’s hard to believe but 2009 is coming to an end. For many, 2009 can’t be over soon enough. For most businesses, it has been a challenging year. And while we’ve seen a rebound in the stock market, most companies are reporting earnings that, while they beat analysts’ estimates, are still significantly less than they […]

Pulled in 2 Directions: The Cost of Uniform Coverage Summaries

Health reform’s uniform summary of benefits and coverage (SBC) will cost insurers and third party administrators (TPAs) about $160 million over the next three years to develop, update, and provide the SBC and glossary to applicants and enrollees, its agency drafters estimate. That includes $25 million in 2011 , $73 million in 2012 and $58 million in […]