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Compensation & Benefits

Price war for new talent? Reassess pay scales

06/29/2017
Sometimes landing the best candidate requires sweetening the salary pot, paying more than the last person to hold the job earned. Before you make such an offer, consider the potential consequences.

DOL recovers 401(k) funds for St. Paul company employees

06/28/2017
According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefit Security Administration, Weinhagen Tire employees’ retirement contributions took an illegal detour into the St. Paul company’s operating accounts.

Minnesota state court allows common law claim for unpaid wages

06/28/2017
A federal court in Minnesota has allowed a lawsuit to proceed based on the concept that unpaid time spent at work can be the basis for an unjust enrichment wage claim.

Paid parental leave proposal can’t find Republican sponsors

06/27/2017
White House advisor and First Daughter Ivanka Trump has yet to find House and Senate sponsors for her proposal to require six weeks of paid parental leave for new mothers and fathers.

Survey: Taxing insurance would raise health costs

06/27/2017
As the Trump administration and Congress negotiate elements of health care and tax reform, a new survey finds that most employers expect higher health insurance costs if the government decides to tax employer-provided insurance.

Snapshot: How much vacation can we take?

06/27/2017
The average number of paid vacation days employees receive increases by length of service.

August 2017: Employer’s business tax calendar

06/22/2017
Here’s your monthly guide to critical payroll due dates.

Substantiation eased for hardship retirement distributions

06/22/2017
One of the first things IRS auditors examine when auditing 401(k) or 403(b) plans is documentation backing up hardship distributions made to employees who need cash. New exception: New instructions to auditors ease this substantiation burden by allowing plans to ditch retaining original documentation in favor of summaries of employees’ financial need.

In the Payroll Mailbag …

06/22/2017
What do to when health benefit deductions go bad … No proof of identity from employee … Are pedometers taxable? … Rules for providing electronic W-2s … What company cars and library books have in common

The Mouse is not pleased! What’s your policy on uniforms?

06/22/2017

Mickey and Minnie have gotten their due. The Department of Labor has announced that it has reached an agreement with the Walt Disney Co. to pay $3.8 million in back wages to 16,339 “cast members” who had to pay for “costumes” to be worn at the company’s theme parks.