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Wages & Hours

Are departed employees eligible for bonuses?

08/01/2004

Q. Our company pays out bonuses in the year after the work is completed, sometimes late into the first quarter. If an employee resigns prior to the bonus payout date (say in January), do we have to pay that employee the bonus? —A.G., South Carolina

Management Lessons From the Court

08/01/2004

Don’t open an employee’s’ personal mail If you know that a letter or package sent to that person at work is personal (not business related). A recent court ruling shows that you may be opening up a legal mess along with the letter …

Retain low-wage employees without busting your budget

08/01/2004
Issue: Retention efforts often focus only on the well-paid professionals and superstars. Benefit: A few simple moves and low-cost programs can help trim turnover …

Ease pay complaints & turnover by training managers

08/01/2004

More often than not, employees believe that their pay levels are pulled out of a hat. And when employees do raise questions about their compensation, they typically go first to their front-line supervisor: the person with the greatest impact on their morale but the least-trained person to offer a good answer …

Wal-Mart bias case will give employees bad ideas

08/01/2004
Now would be a good time to review your organization’s hiring, firing, promotion and pay policies for any hint of gender-based differences. Reason: The big Wal-Mart sex discrimination lawsuit that hit …

Employees rarely win emotional distress lawsuits.

07/01/2004
When a pharmacist sued for unpaid overtime, he also added an “emotional distress” claim, saying the company’s failure to pay overtime caused him to resign. The court didn’t buy it, saying …

Rethink exemption status of traveling sales rep

07/01/2004

Q. We employ sales and service reps who travel and service stores around the country. They work from their home offices, use their own cars and communicate with us via phone. We classify them as exempt. Is this correct? (Most reps are required to spend at least eight hours at each location. Some drive three hours or longer to get to each store. We encourage overnight stays under these circumstances.) —L.C., Oklahoma

Don’t pay for rest breaks beyond 20 minutes

07/01/2004

Q. Is it mandatory for a nonexempt employee to take at least a 20-minute meal break after working a certain number of hours? —M.M., Illinois

Choose bonus pay method and stick with it

07/01/2004

Q. Our company pays monthly bonuses to hourly employees based on the previous month’s performance. When calculating overtime, should the bonus pay be included only for the weekly payroll that contains those bonuses, or does it change the overtime rate for other weekly pay periods, as well? —A.A., Tennessee

New OT rules: countdown to compliance

06/01/2004
The long wait is over. Now it’s time for you to act.
More than a year after proposing changes to the rules that define which employees are eligible for overtime …