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The end of any year is always challenging, between juggling personnel holiday vacation schedules, preparing year-end paperwork, and making adjustments for the upcoming year. From Affordable Care Act compliance and reporting to adjusting compensation strategies, there is no shortage of things to do. In case you are overloaded or running behind this year, here’s a handy list of items to review and determine if you have outstanding work for any of them. To simplify things,…
Have you reminded your self-insured employees to sign up for a 2019 Marketplace plan, yet? This year, the enrollment period is shorter than in previous years—it runs through Saturday, December 15, 2018. (Workers in hurricane-affected areas may have until December 31, 2018.) After that, workers cannot get 2019 coverage unless they qualify for a Special Enrollment Period. On the plus side for the uninsured, the individual mandate, which requires those not enrolled in an approved plan…
As we head toward the new year, following are some considerations for compliance in various areas. Staying on top of these will help keep your firm out of trouble while minimizing expenses and payroll. Payroll compliance is often more about correct interpretation of the law than math. If you are having trouble discerning between employees and independent contractors, look to the IRS guidelines for direction. Some—but not all—employee discounts qualify as income. Learn the difference. Even…
In July 2018, Bryan Jarrett, Acting Administrator of the Department of Labor (DoL), issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2018-4 (FAB) to help Wage & Hour Division (WHD) field investigators determine whether home care, nurse, or caregiver registries are employers under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Registries aren’t employers – they are “worker matching services,” in this case, matching people who need care giving services with the caregivers who provide them. For this registry, the caregivers were home health…
It’s always amazed us at MarathonHR how many restaurants—even fairly large ones—don’t have a Human Resources (HR) department, or even an HR professional on staff who handles payroll, workers’ comp claims, and other issues that restaurants face. They also may not outsource any of their HR functions to another firm. In the most bare-bones situations, the owner does it all. We have worked with a lot of restaurants and have seen, firsthand, that not having…
Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death and injury for people everywhere, and the workplace is no exception. According to the U.S. Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA) Guidelines for Employers to Reduce Motor Vehicle Crashes: Every 12 minutes someone dies in a motor vehicle crash Every 10 seconds an injury occurs Every 5 seconds a crash occurs Many of these incidents occur during the workday or during the commute to and from work….
Although flu season doesn’t really get started until late October, especially in the South, now is a great time to get your office and your workers ready to battle it. Last year’s flu season was especially dangerous—and deadly. Flu sent more than over 700,000 people to the hospital, and 180 children died. The 2017-2018 season was driven by a flu strain, the H3N2 virus, which tends to result in more hospitalizations and cause more deaths….
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has announced that its Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) certification forms and notices are valid for three more years, until Aug. 31, 2021. (The DOL must submit its FMLA forms to the Office of Management and Budget for approval every three years to ensure the FMLA certification and notice process isn’t too bureaucratic.) In late August 2018, seven forms were certified. The DOL didn’t make any substantive changes to the forms,…
Why Don’t We Labor on Labor Day? Our news usually deals with business topics, but with Labor Day coming up this weekend, we thought it would be interesting to look at the history and origination of our beloved “end of summer” holiday: Labor Day. This day might better be called “Workers’ Day,” because that is who it celebrates—the American worker and the trade and labor groups that support them. Encouraged by the labor movement, Labor…
Author’s note: In August, 2017, we published an article about the growing incidence of body art (tattoos and piercings) in the workplace. At the time, we talked about what the trend meant for employers, and what their rights were, when it came to restricting visible body art. A year later, we wanted to revisit the topic. In 2015, the ABA called “Grooming, religion and body art the new frontier in workplace discrimination.” Depending on the industry,…
Buffalo's Cafe Ends Human Resources Headaches;