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Payroll

Beware Time-Clock Inconsistencies

02/01/2004

Q. Our employees punch in 15 minutes or less before their warehouse shifts begin. We pay them starting at their scheduled start time. Also, our employees are scheduled for 30-minute lunch breaks, but some punch in and out for lunch within 10 or 15 minutes. Our company pays the full lunch time, regardless of what is punched. Is this OK? —J.W., Indiana

Labor readies final overtime rule; Congress steps out of the way

01/01/2004
Opponents in Congress recently dropped their opposition to the Labor Department’s proposed rules that redefine which employees qualify for overtime pay.
That clears the way for Labor to release the …

Don’t mandate direct deposit of employees’ pay

12/01/2003
Issue: Some state rules seem to clash with federal rules over whether you can require employees to accept pay via direct deposit.
Risk: By following your state law, in some …

Be careful how you answer pleas for overtime pay

12/01/2003
Issue: If you’re sued for unpaid overtime pay, your damages can mount quickly if the court sees a “willful” violation. Risk: The FLSA enables courts to award employees up to …

You can’t make employees contribute to charity

12/01/2003

Q. Is it legal for us to strongly encourage our employees to have money withheld from their paychecks to support a charity drive, like the United Way? —L.M., Texas

Don’t discriminate against short people

12/01/2003
A well-publicized study could raise skepticism (and, potentially, legal complaints) by short people about your pay practices. The study, to be published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, found that, in …

Be prepared to offer rock-solid reasons for pay levels

11/01/2003
Simply said, federal law requires you to provide men and women equal pay for equal work. While some situations dictate that you set pay differentials, say, for seniority, merit or quantity …

Make Sure ‘Manual Punch’ Counts Correct Hours

11/01/2003

Q. We use a timecard punch-in/punch-out system. If an employee forgets to punch in, and we manually do it, do any labor laws apply? —B.B., New York

Firing an H-1B worker? Notify feds first

11/01/2003
Organizations that employ foreign workers on H-1B visas must now take an extra step when terminating them: notifying the federal government. Example: A software company hired a programmer on a …

Are sales reps more prone to gamble at work? You bet

11/01/2003
If you have hard-charging salespeople on staff, keep an eye out for steep drops in their productivity, requests for pay advances and questionable absences and expenses. Reason: Those are signs of …