Employers within certain large cities and political subdivisions that don’t already offer their employees a retirement plan may soon have more administrative work on their hands. The Department of Labor (DOL) just issued a final rule that allow some cities and subdivisions that meet certain requirements to establish IRA accounts for private-sector workers who do […]
Posted on January 11th, 2017 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 178 Comments »
Two of the most-feared government agencies for employers — the DOL and IRS — have decided there’s a real problem with the way retirement plans are being run, and they’re ramping up their audits to find out why that is. In response to the many mistakes the agencies are seeing from retirement plan sponsors, the […]
Posted on January 10th, 2017 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 189 Comments »
If you believe Republicans on Capitol Hill, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) isn’t long for this world. Still, the Obama administration continues to clarify how businesses are supposed to comply with the law’s many provisions. The Department of Labor (DOL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) just put their […]
Posted on January 9th, 2017 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 178 Comments »
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) accused this employer of making a big mistake, and the employer is now paying $250,000 for it. The employer? Costco, the Washington state-based international warehouse club. The mistake? Failing to intervene when it became known one of its employees was being harassed by a customer. As the EEOC pointed […]
Posted on January 8th, 2017 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 180 Comments »
Employers now have even more incentive to make sure they abide by wage-and-hour laws. Now, in addition to liquidated (a.k.a., double) damages and even jail time, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) violators can be hit with emotional distress damages as well. That’s what the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit just ruled in a […]
Posted on January 7th, 2017 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 186 Comments »
Protection from religious bias casts a wide net under federal law — all the way to whether or not a healthcare facility can require employees to receive a flu shot. Pennsylvania-based Saint Vincent Health Center will pay $300,000 in back pay and compensatory damages to six former employees to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit that […]
Posted on January 6th, 2017 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 162 Comments »
Two very interesting things happened involving the DOL’s overtime rule while you were out of the office over the holidays. First, let’s recap where employers last left off with the rule. Just prior to everyone heading home for the holiday break, the Texas AFL-CIO, a federation of 650 local Texas unions, asked the U.S. District Court […]
Posted on January 5th, 2017 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 281 Comments »
