Compensation & Benefits

This year’s holiday cheer

12/18/2013

Workers have reason for holiday cheer this season as employers continue to give back to employees with year-end perks. Here’s how employers are recognizing employees this holiday season:

IRS to begin enforcing tip vs. service charge rule in 2014

12/18/2013

Regardless of what you call it, tips are amounts customers willingly determine and leave of their own accord; service charges, sometimes called automatic tips, are added to the bill. Tips are taxable when employees report them to their employers; service charges are immediately taxable. The IRS will begin enforcing this rule on Jan. 1, 2014.

Mattel offers paid leave for school activities, volunteering

12/16/2013

Mattel employees who want to attend their children’s soccer games and school plays can take 16 hours of paid time off each year to do it. Full-time employees may participate in their children’s school activities or volunteer at school events that don’t involve their own kids.

Are retirement incentives in lieu of health benefits reportable?

12/16/2013

Question: Employees have three retirement incentives from which to choose: The company picks up their health benefit contributions for three years, they can take a lump-sum payment that equals our single premium rate for up to three years or they can keep their current health benefits and get a prorated cash payout. What’s reportable on their W-2s?

Where do we get health insurance?

12/13/2013

More than half of Americans are insured through an employer-provided health plan, according to a Kaiser Health Tracking Poll.

Wish list: 10 alternatives to Christmas cash

12/12/2013

Are you putting anything extra in employees’ stockings this holiday? While most employees say they’d prefer cash, padding paychecks isn’t the only way your organization can say “Happy Holidays!” Consider these wise alternatives:

USERRA

12/12/2013

HR Law 101: USERRA requires employers to re-employ persons returning from duty in the uniformed services if they meet five cirtieria. Employers must provide to service members a notice of their rights, benefits and obligations …

30 employers band together in surgical benefits consortium

12/11/2013

A group of more than 30 employers—including Boeing, Chevron, GE, Target and Wells Fargo—have formed the national Employers Center of Excellence Network to negotiate lower prices so they can offer hip and knee replacement surgeries at no cost to employees.

Is there anything special about issuing early W-2s?

12/11/2013

Question: An employee who was let go last month requested an early 2013 W-2. I know we have 30 days to comply with his request. What notation should we put on the form to show that it’s not an “official form”?

Memo to the Payroll Santa: Please make W-2s easy this year

12/09/2013

Holiday catalogs have been piling up on your entry hall table for quite some time now. So it must be getting down to W-2 crunch time for Payroll. Here’s the scoop on what you need to know to ensure a smooth W-2 process.