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Compensation & Benefits

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.

Hot Payroll fun this summer

06/16/2014
Performing general Payroll maintenance tasks is essential for your day-to-day operations. It’s also the key to a successful year end. Get started now!

W-2 or 1099 for former employee still receiving pay?

06/13/2014
Q: We have an agreement with a former employee to continue to pay him quarterly bonuses for clients he referred to us. Can we issue him a Form 1099-MISC or are the payments considered wages, which must be reported on a Form W-2?

Pay tops job security as #1 reason for job satisfaction

06/13/2014
For the first time since the pre-recession year of 2007, U.S. employees say compensation is now their No. 1 contributor to their job satisfaction, according to an annual Society for Human Resource Management survey.

State laws on same-sex marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships

06/12/2014
State bans on same-sex marriage continue to be challenged in court. Here’s a chart to help you make sense of where states currently stand in this fast-changing area of the law.

MTA rank and file sign contract

06/09/2014
A new contract grants unionized em­­ployees of New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority retroactive 1% raises for each of the past two years, which means most will receive one-time payments between $3,000 and $5,000.

What’s a valid W-4 form?

06/06/2014
Q: A recently divorced employee refiled her Form W-4 to claim fewer withholding allowances. She included her name and address, but only the last four digits of her Social Security number (SSN). Payroll requested that she complete another form with her full SSN, but she balked, saying that wasn’t necessary, since the W-4 is an internal form only. Is this a valid form?

Are Millennials gun-shy or savvy retirement planners?

06/06/2014
A recent Gallup poll drew lots of media attention with the news that younger workers were so battle-scarred by the Great Recession that they no longer trust stocks as a safe place to park their retirement investments. Wait a minute, said Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest 401(k) provider.