|
Announcing our 2015 Workshops
Managing within California Employment Law
September 10, 2015
Reservations are required for Silvers HR classes.
Contact Mary Patterson at
(916) 791-8506 or
|
Do you know what your employees are thinking?
Employee Surveys are a great way to get feedback from your team. Call us to learn how we can help create and facilitate a confidential and customized survey for you.
|
|
Silvers HR, LLC
This ezine is intended
as a communication
and thought provoking tool for our clients
and friends. It is
not legal advice.
If you would like to
be
removed from our distribution list, please reply to this email and note "unsubscribe" in
the subject line.
© 2015 Silvers HR, LLC. All Rights Reserved
|
|
| |
|
The Exempt Employee Becomes a Rare(r) Animal? DOL Proposes to Change Exempt Employee Salary Minimum Kim Silvers, SPHR-CA Let's face it, the government would prefer that just about every employee be paid on an hourly basis, receive overtime, and employers eliminate the exempt classifications. Another message was sent to U.S. employers this month with the U.S. Department of Labor's announcement to amend 29 CFR Part 541, the "white collar" exemption for executive, administrative, and professional employees. Although we often ignore the federal wage and hour laws in California because our laws are more generous to the employee, the federal proposal will surpass our CA standard like a bullet train. The results will require employers (here and across the nation) to reevaluate their exempt employees' classifications and raise their salaries to the new federal minimum or change employees to non-exempt (hourly) with overtime pay eligibility.
|
Key Changes to the California Family Rights Act
Kim Silvers, SPHR-CA
The California Fair Employment and Housing Council has approved updates to the CA Family Rights Act (CFRA) to add clarification and also align the CFRA more closely with the federal version of this law - the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The new regulations were effective July 1, 2015. Although the CFRA regulations assist in syncing the numerous provisions around family and medical leave, there are still many pieces of the CFRA that differ from the FMLA. Most notably, pregnancy disability leaves are not covered under CFRA, but remain so under FMLA. As a result, a pregnant employee may have up to seven months of protected leave time between these two laws.
Many employers do not manage volumes of medical leaves each year. That's the good news! However, when a potential medical leave of absence is on the forefront it is difficult to be on top of the documentation and timing requirements. If you are a retained client, please give us a call. (Keep in mind the employee does not have to use the specific reference to the laws to be covered. Saying "I want to take CFRA leave next week." is not required on the employee's part. The employer is supposed to recognize a potential protected leave opportunity and take action.)
Our intent here is not to cover every nuance of the changes, but to give you a heads up as to the key changes that may impact current or upcoming leaves. We'll offer more "nerdly" training on these aspects for those with a high interest (uhhh...tolerance?) for the details.
Click here to read more about the New Leave Law Updates
|
| New ACA Reporting Requirements Just Around the Corner Sarah Aquino Vice President, Integrated Benefits and Insurance Services, Inc. ACA certified by the National Association of Health Underwriters By now we're all aware that the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) requires U.S. citizens and legal residents to carry a minimum level of health insurance or face a penalty tax. On our 2014 personal income tax returns we indicated whether or not we had "minimum essential coverage" although no proof of coverage was required. Starting in 2016, insurance companies and some employers will be required to report coverage information to the IRS. The purpose of the reporting is to help the IRS enforce the individual mandate and the employer mandate, and to determine which individuals are eligible for tax credits in the exchanges. The first reports are due in early 2016 but provide information about the coverage offered in 2015. Click here for the entire article. |
Paid Sick Leave Law Update
After many iterations, weeping and gnashing of teeth, the CA paid sick leave (PSL) amendment bill (AB 304) has been signed by Governor Brown. AB 304 has a number of provisions that are intended to clarify the original law (AB 1522 - Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 or HW/HF). We suggested to many of our clients that the amendment would be more about the accrual method (1 hour of PSL for every 30 hours worked) rather than the frontload method (granting 24 hours or 3 days of PSL on July 1 or date of hire). Although not all of the changes are about the accrual, there is good news around the accrual options and determining how to pay PSL.
Below are the primary changes as noted by the State Senate analysis, and we encourage you to review the chart below to determine which of these apply to your company. Our comments are in italics:
Click Here for the entire article
|
|
| |
|
