Tag: benefits

The Dirty Dozen Widely-Believed Myths of Wage/Hour

Vacations? Overtime after 8 hours? Double time for holidays? These are some of the many myths of wage and hour that managers adhere to. In today’s Advisor, we’ll dispel a dozen of them. Myth #1—Employees get extra pay for working nights and weekends. The Facts: The FLSA does not require extra pay for weekend or […]

UPS Not Obligated to Provide ‘Light Duty’ to Pregnant Truck Driver, Says Court

A corporate policy that does not include pregnancy among the conditions making an employee eligible for light duty is a “neutral and legitimate business practice,” not evidence of bias against pregnant workers, according to a recent court ruling that dismissed a UPS truck driver’s claim that she was the victim of pregnancy discrimination. Employers may […]

Final HITECH Omnibus Rules Tighten Breach Notification

The HITECH Act is now here in full. The whole litany of tighter privacy and security requirements is in the long-awaited, long-delayed “omnibus” rules finalized Jan. 17 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and most of these will have to be met by this Sept. 23. The omnibus rules also include changes […]

Short-lived Sale Option Did Not Negate COBRA Small-employer Exception

A former employee argued that her former employer, which employed fewer than 20 employees (and thus was exempt from COBRA) for eight months of the year, formed an affiliated service group with another employer and thus employed more than 20 employees for four months of that year. Thus, she contended the employer became subject to […]

Pension Plans’ 2012 Year-end Funding Levels Below 2011 Ratios

Many plan sponsors are still having a hard time improving the funding status of their plans, according to indexes measuring the December funding levels of U.S. corporate pension plans. Statistics show plans’ funding rose slightly from November 2012 to December 2012, keeping the month’s funded ratios above the lowest monthly figures for 2012; however, they […]

Feds Propose Varying FTE Definition by Industry in Reform’s Play-or-Pay Rules

Federal agencies will accept alternate definitions of full-time employee for purposes of health reform’s play-or-pay mandate, to allow for industry-specific labor norms and seasonal workers. Some business owners and workers requested special methods of calculating hours for employees: (1) whose compensation is not based on hours, such as salespeople on commission; and (2) whose work […]

Know the Public’s Breaking Points on Exec Pay

Fichthorn, who is vice president in the Philadelphia office of Hay Group, offers the following chart to clarify what employers want and how it compares to what the public wants. Topic Area What Makes Business Sense? What Do Shareholders Want? Where’s Their Breaking Point? Pay Philoso-phy Pay positioning that maps to competitive positioning Pay positioning […]

Health Insurance 2013—What’s Really Happening?

Participate in this brief survey and see how your health benefits stack up against those of other successful companies. The survey takes only a few minutes to complete. Complete the Survey Now To show our appreciation we’ll send a PDF of the survey results to all participants. (Be sure to include your contact information where […]

401(k) Plans’ Cost-effectiveness Becomes Clearer as Use Increases

Employers may find this new information useful for planning or justifying their retirement plan expenses: Contrary to the popular belief that defined benefit retirement plans are more costly for employers to administer, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that private-industry employers now spend more per employee hour worked for defined contribution plans. […]