Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Employers have different ways of administering COBRA continuation coverage, as evident in a recent news article about a local candidate’s problem when he was found to owe a city government money after it paid some of his COBRA premiums. The Post-Standard reported Oct. 27 how Timothy Lattimore (R), former mayor of Auburn, N.Y. , elected […]
However, 53% of organizations do not offer domestic partner benefits at all, and have no plans to do so. Of the 93% percent of respondents that offer spousal benefits to benefit-eligible U.S. employees, a little over half (55%) offer these benefits to different-sex spouses only. The Spousal and Domestic Partner Benefits survey, conducted in September […]
Self-insuring health benefits is a riskier undertaking than just writing a check to a United or Aetna. But despite the risk, employers do it because it gives them more control over plan design and the growth of health costs. For self-insured plans to succeed in controlling costs – and they can – they must analyze […]
Employers would be required to approve leave for domestic violence victims and their families under a bill proposed earlier this month by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif. H.R. 3151, the Domestic Violence Leave Act, would amend the Family and Medical Leave Act to guarantee unpaid leave to workers needing medical attention or legal assistance following domestic […]
Think your posting area for legally required employee notifications is crowded? Well, it’s about to get a little more so.
Administering qualified transportation fringe benefits (QTFBs) will be more complicated in 2012. Congress has allowed the parity between mass transit and parking thresholds — which gave transit and vanpool users the same tax advantage as drivers — to expire. Starting Jan. 1, 2012, the excludible amount for those who purchase bus, rail and other mass […]
Today’s tips are again from a recent BLR webinar featuring Teresa Murphy and David Wudyka. Murphy is the principal consultant for HR Partner Advantage, an HR advisory firm based in Raleigh, N.C. Wudyka, SPHR, MBA, BSIE, is the founder and managing principal of Westminster Associates, a Massachusetts-based human resource and compensation firm. Complaint: “I can’t […]
Starting 2012, savers can sock away $17,000 per year in a 401(k) retirement plan without paying upfront taxes, up from $16,500 in 2010. This increase applies to all 401(k) and 403(b) plans, most 457 plans and the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan. The last time the IRS raised this elective deferral (contribution) limit was in […]
Health reform has passed and it was supposed to change the world. But it has yet to take effective action on the biggest problem — the upward spiral of health costs! Raise your hand if you think there is a connection between insurers’ and providers’ lack of transparency on premiums and fees, and that upward […]
Trade legislation that also extends premium subsidies for health coverage under the Health Care Tax Credit (HCTC) program was signed into law by President Obama Oct. 21. The HCTC was enacted as part of the Trade Act of 2002. As originally enacted, it provided a 65-percent tax credit for qualifying health coverage (including COBRA continuation […]