• HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Compensation & Benefits

Dual surveys signal skyrocketing health costs

09/07/2026
Two recent surveys highlight the anticipated skyrocketing rise in health care costs employers can expect in 2027. The first, performed by consulting firm Marsh, formerly known as Mercer, surveyed employers as part of its continuous National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans. Employers reported that the cost of their current plans would increase by 11% on… View Article

New DOJ unit coming for employer payroll fraud

08/31/2026
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has just created the National Fraud Enforcement Unit and announced it is working together with the IRS, trying to unmask employer payroll fraud. What kind of fraud? Their targets include employers who withhold but don’t send the IRS employee taxes withheld and employers that intentionally misclassify employees to avoid payroll… View Article

More workers say they will never retire

08/31/2026
According to a recent survey, 14% of surveyed workers say they don’t expect to ever retire and another 14% say they won’t quit working until they’re at least 70 years old. And about 35% of those surveyed told researchers that they had recently decided they would need to retire later, noting that their living costs… View Article

Adding perks? Watch tax implications

08/31/2026
By Alice Gilman Maybe this is the year you can’t add much in the way of raises given the double-digit increases coming in 2027 for health coverage. But you still want to reward your hardworking staff and show them appreciation. Before you roll out shiny new perks, make sure you check the tax consequences. Many… View Article

Vote early, not often

08/24/2026
By Alice Gilman: Chicago is famous for deep-dish pizza, Wrigley Field and Al Capone, who really did say vote early, vote often. Election day is coming up and everyone should exercise their franchise. If you’re not located in a state with early voting, you can let employees take time off from work to vote. Flip… View Article

New rules coming for Trump Accounts

08/17/2026
The Treasury Department is proposing new rules for Trump Accounts, the child investment vehicles recently available to parents. The accounts can be opened by a parent for children under age 18. For those children born between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028, Treasury will provide $1,000 seed money. The annual contribution limit from all… View Article

Health insurance cost set to spike for small employers

08/17/2026
When it comes to offering employees health insurance benefits, small companies with 25 or fewer workers are already far behind larger companies with 200 or more workers. Only 51% of smaller companies offer insurance while over 97% of bigger companies do. If a recent report from KFF, the health policy research, polling and news organization,… View Article

Jobs and workforce participation rate fall

08/09/2026
In a bit of bad news, the latest figures from the Department of Labor (DOL) show that the number of new jobs created and the workforce participation rate both fell in July. While analysts expected a job gain of about 80,000 positions, the DOL reported that jobs fell by about 23,000 positions. The unemployment rate… View Article

HR professionals: Check your privilege?

08/09/2026
A recent study sheds light on why some applicants or employees do better than others when negotiating a starting salary or pay increase. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management conducted a research study that included 1,100 human resource professionals confronted with applicants who were told they could negotiate their compensation. The study,… View Article

Creative benefits that don’t break the bank

08/09/2026
According to the Census Bureau, by 2030, all baby boomers will be older than 65. Impact: 20% of employees will be at their retirement age and may be thinking seriously about their future in the next few years. Their upcoming decisions like when to sign up for Medicare when they still have company-sponsored health insurance and whether… View Article