Blog

26 07, 2018

Travel time: Important guidance for when employees should be paid

July 26th, 2018|Recordkeeping, Timekeeping|

Company owes $62k to workers required to drop of trucks   Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA), all travel between job sites throughout the workday must be paid. This includes if employees are required to “check in” at their employer’s location after completing their work at the end of the day.   Making mistakes [...]

26 07, 2018

New info from DOL clarifies when rest breaks must be paid

July 26th, 2018|FMLA, Recordkeeping|

FMLA may supersede rules on breaktimes   What happens when an employee asks to take repeated, short breaks each workday for a health condition?   Should you be making sure that person gets paid – or does the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) supersede the rules on breaktimes?   The Dept. of Labor (DOL) [...]

19 07, 2018

$120K owed: Food processing wasn’t a problem, but payroll processing was

July 19th, 2018|Recordkeeping, Timekeeping|

Employer falsified timecards, then disposed of them   Investigators found glaring paycheck errors at a food-processing plant in Westbury, NY, the state attorney general announced.   From 2013 to 2017, Diversified Processors Inc. and Processors Inc. mishandled minimum wage and overtime payments due to 10 plant workers.   Now, the employer must pay $120,555 in [...]

19 07, 2018

IRS updates form & guidance for federal tax levies

July 19th, 2018|Garnishments|

Check your records: The IRS recently updated several key pubs and forms related to federal tax levies.   You’ll want to double-check that you have the most up-to-date info when calculating how much of an employee’s pay is exempt from levy.   New instructions   Because the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the personal [...]

26 06, 2018

Paid program draws scrutiny: Top drawbacks & what to consider

June 26th, 2018|Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Timekeeping|

Eleven Attorneys General address their concerns   The Dept. of Labor (DOL) just announced the launch of its PAID (Payroll Audit Independent Determination) program, which was designed to give companies a reprieve from fines and other penalties when they self-report wage issues.   Although the PAID program’s in its infancy, it’s already facing some significant [...]

14 06, 2018

Massachusetts Strengthens Its Equal Pay Act

June 14th, 2018|Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)|

The Massachusetts Equal Pay Act (MEPA), passed in 1945, was the first state law of its kind. But it hasn’t provided enough detail to be useful to employees or stiff enough penalties to be compelling for employers. The amendments to MEPA, which take effect July 1, 2018, make the law significantly more relevant. Equal Pay [...]

14 06, 2018

Paid family and medical leave credit: Latest need-to-know info from IRS

June 14th, 2018|FMLA|

Details about how companies leave programs can qualify   The IRS has just released more details about the new paid family and medical leave business credit. An FAQ from the agency clarifies some of the key requirements companies must meet to collect the credit. Here are the highlights.   Wages and more   To claim [...]

14 06, 2018

Employee denied promotion while on FMLA leave: Avoid costly mistake

June 14th, 2018|FMLA|

Company owes worker at least 30K in wages and damages   Just because you don’t always have to pay employees when they’re on leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be on the lookout for any pay-related issues.   If it even looks like FMLA leave was a [...]

31 05, 2018

How DOL’s new PAID program could help companies resolve wage issues

May 31st, 2018|Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Recordkeeping|

Self-audit initiative would limit liability if violations found   Sometimes, self-audits of a company’s payroll process may uncover surprising issues with paying workers correctly.   The Dept. of Labor (DOL) is throwing a lifeline to employers who discover wage problems with its newest initiative, the Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program.   Specific requirements   [...]

31 05, 2018

Kristy Stevenson, HR, for Independent’s Service, of Hannibal MO shares how a new time clock system reduced headaches

May 31st, 2018|Timekeeping|

We’d had our old time clocks for as long as anyone could remember, and they’d become outdated.   They couldn’t store any data, and power outages resulted in us losing hourly punches.   Not only that, but when an employee wanted to request time off, that person had to fill out a sheet and wait [...]