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Compensation & Benefits

What do employees want now?

09/24/2015
You offer them health care, dental care, vision care and retirement benefits. Well, so does everyone else. If you want your company to really shine, HR needs to get creative.

Am I allowed to institute a tip pool?

09/21/2015
Q. Bartenders and servers at my bar make hundreds of dollars in tips each night while our hosts, bussers and managers walk away with much less. I instituted a pooling policy to correct the injustice, but now my bartenders and servers are threatening to sue for taking their tips. Are they right?

How should I handle meal breaks and downtime when we work on a split-shift basis?

09/21/2015
Q. I need my restaurant employees to work lunch and dinner shifts but not the two hours between when we are closed. Do I have to pay for the time they are on break between or does it qualify as a meal break?

California minimum wage bill stalls in legislature

09/21/2015
A controversial bill to increase California’s minimum wage recently failed to pass in the state Legislature. The bill would have phased in a $3 per hour increase to the minimum wage rate and also would have imposed annual cost of living increases.

Think twice before changing authorized payroll deductions

09/21/2015

Under California law, employees must authorize voluntary payroll deductions and employers must provide itemized wage statements. A case is testing whether employers can raise the employee’s retirement contribution to a percentage of salary after he already approved a specific dollar amount.

Documenting payroll procedures: All-purpose solution to everything

09/21/2015
What if there was a way you could solve your new-hire training problems, identify areas that can be improved and aid in disaster planning? According to Raeann Hofkin, CPP, East Region Payroll Manager, Mobilex, USA, there is: Documenting the entire flow of the payroll process. Hofkin spoke at the American Payroll Association’s Annual Congress, held earlier this year.

Work sheet for fourth-quarter 2015 941 forms

09/17/2015
Payroll pros, download this sheet to reconcile your payroll through the third quarter.

Raises to average 3% in 2016, more for top performers

09/17/2015
Pay raises for U.S. employees are expected to hold steady in 2016, according to a survey by the Towers Wat­­son HR consulting firm. Virtually all respondents (98%) said they plan to give employees raises next year, with an average salary increase of 3% for exempt professionals.

Just got confirmation that you moved? Don’t be alarmed

09/16/2015
Beginning this year, the IRS must send you notices of your old and new address, if your mailing address for tax purposes changes.

Fed contractors can’t gag pay talk

09/15/2015
A new rule issued by the Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs explicitly gives employees of federal contractors and subcontractors the right to discuss how much they are paid.