This is important information for you. It’s like checking the weather report before you head out on vacation.  The EEOC released their Strategic Enforcement Plan, or SEP, on October 17, 2016. This SEP declares what areas of compliance they’re going to focus on for the next 5 years. They call these “substantive area priorities” and it’s…

This rule change is bad for you and it’s bad for your employees.  On episode 33 published on May 23rd 2016, I introduced you to the change being made by the Department of Labor (DOL) to the minimum salary requirement for the overtime exemption under the executive, administrative and professional employee rule, and we are just…

HRAs are funded exclusively by employers. In the last episode I taught you a little bit about Health Savings Accounts. I said they’re a great tool for lowering your group health insurance costs and I explained how they work… but, I didn’t explain how they actually lower your costs A Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) is…

One of the best ways to lower your group health insurance costs is to incentivize your employees to change their behavior. On the next two episodes I’m going to teach you about Health Savings Accounts and Health Reimbursement Arrangements….two great tools for controlling group health costs. They are a little bit different from each each…

On October 5, 2016, Cook County, Illinois passed an “earned sick leave” ordinance that takes effect on July 1, 2017 Hey everyone welcome to episode 76. I want to update you on the recent changes to Form I-9 which take effect on January 21, 2017. I also want to update you on the latest paid sick…

You are automatically liable for your Supervisors harassment. In simple terms, the difference between discrimination and harassment is discrimination is a form of bias committed by the company. For example, you didn’t hire someone because of their race. Whereas harassment is bias committed by an individual within or an employee of the company. What is…

Do you have an accountable reimbursement plan that complies with IRS rules? Do you have employees that travel? Do you reimburse their expenses or pay them an allowance? Only qualified travel expenses can be reimbursed without being included as taxable wages. You might be reimbursing unqualified expenses because: The travel doesn’t qualify as a business…

Unintended consequences will soon follow implementation of this job killing law.     The incredibly astute and highly skilled business savvy City Council members of Seattle continue to outdo themselves with their utopia building. These geniuses have produced yet another set of handcuffs to shackle the greedy business owners and keep them from taking advantage…

The people who write tax code are masters of confusion. I often wonder if they do it on purpose or if they really are idiots.  Once you’ve decide the why, who, what, when, and how to bonus your employees you’ll need to look at the compliance aspects of your plan. What’s the right way to withhold federal income…

Make sure the Plan is measurable and not left to arbitrary interpretation or shady math. I recently had a listener write in asking how to bonus their employees without discriminating and I thought this would be a good topic for an episode (or two), especially with the holidays coming around. The right bonus plan will…