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Wages & Hours

HR salaries: It pays to specialize

01/03/2012
Organizations are increasingly recognizing the value of human resources and its strategic role in helping recruit, develop, and reward talent. In turn, salaries and the opportunity to earn incentives have increased for HR professionals, according to a report by Culpepper Compensation Surveys & Services. Here is Culpepper’s anaylsis of the report …

4.2% employee Social Security rate extended through February 2012

12/31/2011
After weeks of wrangling, the House of Representatives and the Senate on Dec. 23, 2011 agreed to extend a 2 percentage point payroll tax cut for two months to buy time for talks on a full-year renewal. President Obama immediately signed the bill into law. The vote removes employer uncertainly about how to handle payroll withholding starting Jan. 1, 2012.

Employer wins commute dispute

12/28/2011

Employees must be paid for their pre-shift or post-shift activities, if those activities are integral and indispensable to the performance of their principal jobs. That can stretch a workday and possibly require you to pay for employees’ commuting time. But not all pre-shift or post-shift work is the same.

How flexible is starting pay in your organization?

12/20/2011
Most employers offer at least some flexibility to tweak starting pay.

No minimum wage for court-ordered sex-offender work

12/14/2011
A federal court has ruled that work done by civilly committed sex offenders as part of their treatment program is exempt from the minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Potential for class-action pay lawsuit could be lurking in your food delivery fees

12/14/2011
There may be a class-action lawsuit lurking in your delivery charges if you automatically tack on extra fees for delivering pizza or other food directly to homes or businesses and that money doesn’t go straight to the delivery drivers.

Will the reduced FICA tax rate stay or go?

12/14/2011
When the congressional “Supercommittee” failed to reach a ­deficit-reduction deal in November, it also punted on renewing the so-called payroll tax holiday. If Congress doesn’t act before Jan. 1, the pre-2011 rate will go back into effect, costing the average American worker about $900 in take-home pay in 2012.

Beware schedule changes that lower pay! They could trigger discrimination lawsuits

12/13/2011
When an employee’s workload is reduced and her pay declines because she’s working fewer hours, she may be able to sue. The pay reduction qualifies as an adverse action, which can trigger litigation.

Minimum wages to rise in 10 states in 2012

12/12/2011
Without any action by their legislatures, employers in 10 states will experience increases in their minimum wage rates in 2012 because those states tie annual increases in their wage floor to increases in the cost of living.

Ohio’s minimum wage rises to $7.70 per hour

12/02/2011

Effective Jan. 1, 2012, Ohio’s state minimum wage rises from $7.40 per hour to $7.70 per hour. The minimum wage for tipped employees increases to $3.85 per hour. Employers must still ensure that tipped workers’ wages and tips add up to the state’s new minimum wage of $7.70.