05/22/2013
The IRS has confirmed that how you withhold income taxes from supplemental pay, such as bonuses—by using a flat withholding method or aggregating the supplemental pay with other wages—is entirely up to you; employees can’t specify a withholding method.
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04/03/2013
There’s a quick and easy way to determine whether your bonus payment program might be tainted by hidden sex discrimination in violation of either the federal Equal Pay Act or the New York Human Rights Law.
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01/22/2013
A new law for 2013 requires California employers that pay regular commissions to provide employees with a written contract detailing the formula for calculating commissions, as well as the method of payment.
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01/22/2013
Bonuses are back, according to research conducted by the Hay Group. But with a pragmatic nod to today’s austere business environment, employers are taking a hard look at why they’re dishing out variable pay, what they want it to accomplish and how they decide who gets how much.
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01/13/2013
Do you hand out periodic bonuses to employees? If so, be sure you can clearly describe how you calculate bonuses and what employees need to do to receive one. If you must later terminate an employee—and claim poor performance was the reason—she may point to the bonus as proof you fired her for discriminatory reasons.
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01/02/2013
In the waning hours of New Year’s Day, Congress passed legislation averting a plunge off the "fiscal cliff" and making permanent Bush-era tax rates for all but the highest earners. Now employers can finally make concrete plans for their 2013 payroll operations.
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12/18/2012
Q. Can we give an exempt employee a bonus of extra vacation days in addition to the standard accrued time off outlined in our employee handbook?
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11/30/2012
Don’t confuse Uncle Sam with Santa Claus. When it comes to violating pay laws around the holidays, the feds won’t be generous if your organization is on the naughty list. Here are four rules to make sure holiday pay complies with the FLSA and IRS rules.
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11/19/2012
Commercials for holiday gifts have been running on TV since at least Halloween. So naturally, employees are making their lists and checking them twice. Perhaps they’re counting on a holiday bonus to pay for it all. If holiday bonuses are in your future, be sure to cover these bases.
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11/12/2012
This year’s merit increases will hover around 3%, according to a survey of 270 large multinational companies by compensation consulting firm Empsight International. Say farewell to across-the-board pay hikes and years-of-service bumps. Instead, look for renewed emphasis on raises linked to meeting or beating organizational goals. Here are the compensation trends to watch in 2013.
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09/24/2012
If an employer retains complete control over whether to pay a bonus and the amount of the bonus, then it can be excluded from an employee’s regular rate as a discretionary bonus. But both parts of this test count equally. Recently, a federal trial court ruled that bonuses that always equaled $50 failed the second part of the test.
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09/10/2012
A recent decision by New York’s highest court highlights the value of spelling out the terms of employment in a written offer letter.
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03/13/2012
After realizing how much it spent training new employees, SIB Development and Consulting in Charleston, S.C., decided to launch a novel retention bonus: If you keep your job for five years, you get $50,000.
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02/10/2012
Compensation experts are predicting modest but steady wage growth over the next few years as employers shake off the salary freezes, layoffs and low profits brought on by the recession. Still, a recent Forbes story says 2012 could be The Year of the Employee Backlash, as workers look for greener pastures.
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01/25/2012
The IRS has clarified that employers can take a current-year tax deduction for a fixed amount of bonuses that will be paid to employees during the following year, even though the amount that each employee will receive, and even the identity of employees, aren’t known until after the tax year ends.
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