Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Once you’ve got a salary increase matrix (see below), determining increases should be simple—but it’s not. Several approaches are commonly used for determining salary increases. Performance/merit systems are the most common. Across-the-board or general increases are often tied to increases in the cost-of-living index. For unionized employees, the collective bargaining agreement will include a negotiated […]
Employers struggling to decode the service provider fee disclosures from their retirement plans may be getting some relief. Nearly two years after the U.S. Department of Labor published a proposed rule requiring covered service providers to disclose the cost of what they do for employer-sponsored 401(k)s, the agency is requesting more help for plan sponsors […]
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A federal appeals court agreed with a retirement plan plaintiff that he did not have to show “actual harm” to seek a retirement plan reformation after alleged inadequate communication about a change in his former employer’s defined benefit plan. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Geoffrey Osberg and other plaintiffs in Osberg […]
On Feb. 26, SIIA’s CEO and president Mike Ferguson testified before a House panel to make it clear that skirting the ACA is not the reason companies and institutions self-insure, contrary to what pro-reform elements in the federal government may believe. The decision whether to self-fund is based on risk tolerance, understanding of legal liability, […]
The 7th Circuit in a 2-1 ruling refused to grant a preliminary injunction to Notre Dame University, which would have freed the university from participating in reform’s requirement to provide contraceptives at no cost to all women. In so doing the court criticized the university’s argument that signing an EBSA Form 700 — expressing objections to the contraceptive […]
Generally, waiting periods to enroll in health coverage cannot exceed 90 days, and eligibility conditions based solely on the lapse of a time period are permissible for no more than 90 days, under new final rules issued by the U.S. Departments of Labor Health and Human Services and the Treasury. In addition, the employer has […]
Pay for performance is the order of the day, but you can’t have pay for performance if you can’t measure performance in a meaningful way. Unfortunately, there are significant pitfalls to avoid when conducting your performance reviews. In today’s Advisor, we’ll get tips from expert Armstrong on how to make performance appraisals more meaningful for […]
While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) contains many provisions, perhaps one of the most discussed is the “play or pay” provision. The ACA’s play-or-pay provision mandates that employers with 50 or more full-time-equivalent employees must offer group health benefits to full-time employees working, on average, 30 or more hours per week, or potentially pay a […]
Although sponsors of group health plans have had their hands full sorting through the still-changing Affordable Care Act requirements, the recent uproar involving AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is a stark reminder of the need to stay vigilant on HIPAA privacy — even as companies wrestle publicly with health care costs. As has been widely reported, […]