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Compensation & Benefits

Piece work pay rate violates FLSA in LA

08/23/2019
ESS Apparel in Los Angeles has agreed to pay 21 employees $53,876 in back pay and overtime to resolve charges it violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Appeals court reverses course: Sometimes a ‘service charge’ really is a gratuity

08/23/2019
A California state appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit asking whether banquet “service charges” are tips payable to servers under Labor Code Section 351.

Association retirement plans coming to small businesses

08/23/2019
Small businesses will soon be able to offer retirement savings plans to their workers through association retirement plans under a final Department of Labor rule that will take effect Sept. 30.

‘Predictive scheduling’ laws pick up steam

08/15/2019
Does your organization sometimes cancel employees’ shifts at the last minute, schedule extra workers for peak times (then send some of them home) or require employees to be prepared to call in to work at any time? If so, a growing trend of local laws could make those practices unlawful.

Double whammy in store for ACA free riders

08/15/2019
The IRS has begun enforcing the Affordable Care Act’s free-rider penalties against approximately 50,000 applicable large employers it suspects didn’t offer at least 95% of their full-time employees and their dependents affordable, minimum value group health benefits during 2017.

In the Payroll Mailbag: September ’19

08/15/2019
Questions for the Social Security Administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Office of Child Support Enforcement.

2020 adjustments for group health plans set

08/15/2019
The Department of Health and Human Services and the IRS have released their inflation adjusted figures for group health plans for the 2020 calendar year.

IRS provides post-audit payroll tax advice

08/15/2019
Payroll audits that result in tax underpayments have an unexpected, ugly side effect: employees will have additional FICA-taxable income. Worse: You may be completely out-of-pocket for the underwithheld income taxes that are now due. The IRS, in technical advice to auditors, instructs them on how to handle this additional income and taxes.

Employer in hot water for completing fraudulent W-2s

08/15/2019
Revenge W-2s and 1099s are never a good idea. If you have a beef with a former employee, it would be best to leave the Social Security Administration and the IRS out of it.

FMLA covers some school-related absences

08/15/2019
For years, employers have been told the FMLA doesn’t cover leave that employees take for their children’s school-related meetings and visits. But an eye-opening new U.S. Department of Labor opinion letter adds an important new exception to that rule.