Incentive Pay

Holiday bonuses: Pass the bucks

11/18/2013

Good, bad or sluggish economy, there are valid reasons—mostly sustaining employee morale—to pay holiday bonuses. If your company will be doing so, now’s the time for Payroll to plan for them.

Harris Health System pays out $4M for back OT

10/31/2013

Harris Health System in Houston will pay out more than $4 million in back pay after it failed to include incentive pay when calculating overtime for thousands of hourly staff members.

How should we calculate withholding on executive bonuses?

06/13/2013

Question: What are the tax guidelines for executive bonuses payments? I need to calculate the withholding on them manually.

Special analysis: How to tax and deduct bonuses

05/22/2013

The IRS has confirmed that how you withhold income taxes from supplemental pay, such as bonuses—by using a flat withholding method or aggregating the supplemental pay with other wages—is entirely up to you; employees can’t specify a withholding method.

Audit bonus payments to discover any gender discrimination

04/03/2013

There’s a quick and easy way to determine whether your bonus payment program might be tainted by hidden sex discrimination in violation of either the federal Equal Pay Act or the New York Human Rights Law.

New California rules for commission compensation contracts

01/22/2013

A new law for 2013 requires California employers that pay regular commissions to provide employees with a written contract detailing the formula for calculating commissions, as well as the method of payment.

Bonuses bounce back, with push from the top

01/22/2013

Bonuses are back, according to research conducted by the Hay Group. But with a pragmatic nod to today’s austere business environment, employers are taking a hard look at why they’re dishing out variable pay, what they want it to accomplish and how they decide who gets how much.

Be prepared to explain bonus before discharge

01/13/2013

Do you hand out periodic bonuses to employees? If so, be sure you can clearly describe how you calculate bonuses and what employees need to do to receive one. If you must later terminate an employee—and claim poor performance was the reason—she may point to the bonus as proof you fired her for discriminatory reasons.

Fiscal cliff averted: New law sets 2013 withholding rates; ‘payroll tax holiday’ expires

01/02/2013

In the waning hours of New Year’s Day, Congress passed legislation averting a plunge off the “fiscal cliff” and making permanent Bush-era tax rates for all but the highest earners. Now employers can finally make concrete plans for their 2013 payroll operations.

Can we offer exempts extra vacation bonuses?

12/18/2012

Q. Can we give an exempt employee a bonus of extra vacation days in addition to the standard accrued time off outlined in our employee handbook?