The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) enables eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave during a 12-month period for qualifying family and medical reasons. While the FMLA provides a federal baseline for covered employers and eligible employees, some states have adopted their own state-mandated family and medical leave programs. These state programs may differ from federal FMLA requirements. For example, unlike the federal FMLA, the N

At the time of hire, employers must complete Form I-9, which is an employment eligibility verification. Many employers have utilized E-Verify to accomplish this easier. E-Verify is an online system that compares any information obtained by Form I-9 with government records, confirming an employee’s identity and authorization to work in the United States. First and foremost, it’s important to have a certain degree of understanding of the requirements of Form I-9. Instructions o

Two of the top concerns for employers should be creating a secure work environment and protecting the privacy of company and customer/client information. To that end, some employers choose to ban the use of personal phone mobile devices by employees while they are at work. However, it’s important to understand the limitations of such policies. Invasion of Privacy is a common law tort that protects individuals’ privacy from intrusions or unwanted breaches of privacy. Similarly

The FLSA establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, and youth employment standards. All employees in the private sector and federal, state, and local governments must comply with these standards. Correct employee classification of exempt versus nonexempt employee status is important to all employers. Employers cannot arbitrarily assign their employees to one classification or the other based upon employee requests or ease of payroll processing. Instead, the FLSA offers clea

It is imperative that all employers provide a productive work environment that is free from discrimination. Discrimination refers to employment decisions that are motivated by a protected characteristic. Employment decisions may include, for example: hiring, firing, transferring, promoting, demoting, benefits, compensation, and other conditions of employment. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it u

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) gives employees and their families the right to choose to continue their health care benefits for a limited time if their health care coverage is lost due to a qualifying event. These qualifying events include but are not limited to voluntary or involuntary job loss, reduction in the hours worked, a covered spouse’s divorce or legal separation from the employee, or a covered dependent’s change in status. Employers nee

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) gives employees and their families the right to choose to continue their health care benefits for a limited time if their health care coverage is lost due to a qualifying event. These qualifying events include but are not limited to voluntary or involuntary job loss, reduction in the hours worked, a covered spouse’s divorce or legal separation from the employee, or a covered dependent’s change in status. Employers nee

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was created to prevent undocumented immigrants from being employed in the United States. From that act, Form I-9 is used by employers to verify each new hire’s identity and authorization to work in the US. In 1996, E-Verify was developed through the Department of Homeland Security. This website helps businesses determine the eligibility of their employees to work in the US. It is important for businesses to know that E-Verify sho

When a new employee is hired, there are federal and state reporting requirements that must be followed. This new hire information serves several purposes: it is used for the establishment or enforcement of child support orders, and can help detect and/or prevent wrongful benefit payments, such as unemployment payments or public assistance such as welfare, food stamps or Medicaid. A new hire is defined as an individual who has not been previously employed by the employer, or,

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was first enacted in 1938 and provided employees with a minimum wage for hours worked and also put into place the 40 hour work week. In many circumstances, employees working over 40 hours a week are entitled to overtime compensation. It is crucial that you know how to classify employees to determine who is entitled to receive overtime pay. When looking at overtime rules, it is important to know the difference between exempt and nonexempt e

The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was passed 25 years ago. Upon its passing, eligible employees could take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave within a 12 month period for qualifying medical and family reasons. This unpaid, job-protected leave could be used in order to care for a new baby, adopted or foster child, or to take care of themselves or a family member’s serious medical condition. The FMLA sets a minimum standard that all states must follow and allows for four differen

It is always unfortunate news when you learn that an employee you know and work with has been diagnosed with a serious illness. Americans are now facing a real world health crisis. For example, in 2017, almost 50% of deaths in the US were attributed to heart disease and cancer. So what do you do when you find out someone you work with has been affected by one of these or any other serious illness? Our first instinct is to want to help the person in a kind and compassionate ma

In our last blog, we talked about non-poaching agreements and why employers can not divulge employee salaries to competitors and other actions that would violate antitrust laws. (You can read that blog here.) It was mentioned that while the employer cannot share this information, they cannot stop an employee from doing so. This week we’ll share why. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA) protects workers’ rights to discuss their salaries. It protects both union and

When you have employees that are instrumental and valuable to the success of your company, it only makes sense that you would want to protect your investment in them. You don’t want that employee to leave and take a job elsewhere, especially if that job is with a competitor, and even more so if you’ve invested a lot of time, money, and effort training them. Enter the non-poaching agreement. In this type of arrangement, companies agree they will not solicit the employees of th

Even in this digital age, where most, if not all information can be found online, there is one aspect of labor compliance that has not changed. The labor law poster. We’ve all seen them in break-rooms and cafeterias, or other common employee areas. They are not posted because someone didn’t get around to decorating the office and these seemed easy. These posters are required by both federal and state law. So what exactly must be posted and where? Some industries may need addi

From their initial job application, to federally required tax and payroll information, performance reviews, medical information, and disciplinary actions, there is a lot of information compiled on employees. This information is then kept in their personnel file or if required for compliance purposes in a separate file. It is the duty of the human resources department to ensure that these files are accurate and employees’ rights to confidentiality and privacy are protected. Bu

Employers are required by law to file reports on payroll and taxes, health and retirement benefits, equal opportunity reporting, and safety and health. Keeping on top of everything can be time consuming, but not knowing what to file and when to do it can result in expensive penalties. Below you’ll find an overview of just some of the federal reporting requirements. Disclosure: This is not a comprehensive list and is not intended to provide legal guidance. For the specific re

You’ve heard the old adage: there are three things to avoid in polite conversation; politics, religion, and money. When hiring, it’s been commonplace to ask for a candidate’s salary history. But, today, this is a practice we have moved away from; not because it isn’t polite, but for several reasons including fairness and legal issues. Before getting into why asking for salary histories is not a good practice during the hiring process, let’s look at some of the reasons this h

A Gallup poll from May 2016 found 31% of non-retired workers plan to be employed until they are 68 or older. Those who consider themselves Baby Boomers or Gen Xers see themselves working past the traditional age of retirement. With advances in health care and people generally taking better care of themselves, most adults are living longer, more active lives. Couple that with the Great Recession (2007-2012) and many adults from those generations are also playing catch-up with

Signed into law in 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will bring changes to both corporate and individual taxes in the hopes of stimulating the economy and creating more jobs. Highlighted below are just a few of the changes for 2018. The information provided below is not intended to be a comprehensive list and for application of the new law to specific cases, a tax advisor should be consulted. Corporate Tax Changes: Here are some of the changes to the corporate taxes. There i