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Compensation & Benefits

When cutting costs, hands off the doughnuts

10/28/2008

Faced with rising costs, Quality Environmental Professionals Inc. scrambled to find ways to cut costs without laying off staff. But when the CEO tried to cut into the doughnut budget, employees balked. Employees offered to work an extra hour or two each week to ensure the continued flow of doughnuts …

What are the liability risks for health plan administrators?

10/28/2008

Q. I was recently approached by one of our company’s board members and asked to act as the plan administrator for our health benefits plan. I am nervous about assuming formal responsibility for plan administration. Am I subject to personal liability for administering our company’s plan?

New Purdue University policy grants paid parental leave

10/28/2008

Purdue University implemented a new parental leave policy in October that grants paid time off to either parent for a birth or adoption. The policy provides up to six weeks of paid leave for the birth mother and up to three weeks for the father of the child or same-sex domestic partner of the birth mother …

Former township assessor: Take my salary, please

10/28/2008

After Indiana’s property tax restructuring bill left 12 township assessors in Harrison County with contracts but no work to do in the coming year, the county council voted to pay them through 2010, the end of their elected terms …

Restaurant owes back wages; owners wrangle over who pays

10/28/2008

Las Limas restaurant in Angola has been ordered to pay 20 workers roughly $40,000 in back wages for numerous wage violations. A two-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor found that kitchen staff were improperly paid on a salary basis and denied overtime.

Downtime: When to Pay for Meal and Rest Breaks

10/28/2008

It’s a deceptively simple concept: You have to pay nonexempt employees for every hour they work. But employers often trip over interpretation of that law when it comes to exceptions such as meal and rest breaks. Here’s a plain-English explanation of a sometimes tricky situation. PLUS! Find out what workers are really doing on their coffee breaks!

There’s getting hurt … then there’s the fear of getting hurt

10/27/2008

Here’s a tale of workplace terror so harrowing that one of the characters even used a pseudonym when he filed for workers’ comp … for injuries he had yet to receive.

New laws promise reform of N.J. workers’ compensation system

10/27/2008

New Jersey’s workers’ compensation system will be tougher on companies and employees who try to “game the system,” Senate Labor Committee Chairman Paul Sarto told A.M. Best Company, which rates the stability of government bonds and other financial instruments.

State employee benefits cut

10/27/2008

Gov. Jon Corzine signed into law a new benefits package for state employees that raised the retirement age from 60 to 62 and increased the minimum salary workers must earn before being eligible for pension benefits. Now state government employees must earn at least $7,500 per year to qualify for a pension. The previous minimum was $500.

Pay and benefits concessions keep paper from folding

10/27/2008

Wage freezes and other employee concessions negotiated in October brought New Jersey’s largest newspaper, Newark’s The Star-Ledger, back from the brink of a sale or possible bankruptcy.