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Compensation & Benefits

Mortgage banker offers playful perks on the job

06/20/2014
Managers at national mortgage banker Supreme Lending encourage em­­ploy­­ees to balance work with time off and play—even on the job.

Does your vacation luggage include a briefcase?

06/20/2014
More than 60% of employees polled by Glassdoor.com reported that they tended to some kind of work-related matter during their last vacation.

401(k)s must recognize same-sex spouses

06/20/2014
The fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 U.S. v. Wind­­sor decision continues to affect employers. The IRS now says that 401(k) plans that define marriage and spouses in terms of heterosexuality must be amended to define those terms in a gender-neutral way.

America’s Top 5 benefits

06/18/2014
U.S. workers value health care and medical benefits above all other workplace perks. A new SHRM poll found these benefits were rated most important.

Family-coverage health premiums up 5.4% this year

06/17/2014
Employer-provided health insurance for a family of four now costs $23,215, according to a new report by the actuarial firm Milliman. This can be seen as both good and bad news.

Are business owners exempt from payroll taxes?

06/17/2014

Q: We process payroll for several companies. A new client says that company owners are exempt from all payroll taxes. Is there some law out there that we don’t know about?

Should we be paying for the trip from our home office to the work site?

06/16/2014
Q. One of our work crews needs to drive to a single work site during the day. One employee drives a truck and trailer with tools and equipment from our main facility. We would like to allow other employees to save gas by riding in the company’s truck. Do we need to pay employees for this commute time?

Hibachi Buffet carves out settlement in wage suit

06/16/2014
A U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division investigation has found that the Hibachi Buffet restaurant in Minneapolis owes 18 employees a total of $117,000 in unpaid wages.

Unintentional misconduct doesn’t block unemployment

06/16/2014
Employees who are fired for misconduct aren’t eligible for unemployment benefits. But an unintentional mistake doesn’t block benefits.

Feds cut off future work for North Woods, Minn. contractor

06/16/2014
Garcia Forest Service finds itself barred from doing any more federal contract work after Uncle Sam found that it was cutting more than trees while performing forestry services in the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota.