07/29/2010
While making the right benefits choices and completing the necessary paperwork is ultimately the employee’s responsibility, HR can give a kick in the pants by providing a checklist like this one.
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07/23/2010
It’s time to invite your 401(k) provider for a brown-bag lunch presentation. Reason: In a recent survey, Americans were asked to grade themselves on their knowledge of personal finance. A full 34% gave themselves a grade of C, D or F.
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07/08/2010
Long Island’s Bayville Fire Department will allow volunteer firefighters to accrue length-of-service credit past age 65 as part of an age discrimination settlement with the EEOC. The volunteers accrue service time and then receive bonuses based on that time. The payments essentially amount to a pension.
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06/24/2010
Q. Are there any specific rules defining “early out” retirement packages offered to employees? Our company is planning to offer early outs. Our criteria mandate that an employee must have worked for us for at least 15 years and be at least 50 years old. But we have employees who have worked as long as 28 years who fail to meet the 50-year-old criterion. Is this age discrimination in a reverse sort of way?
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06/07/2010
At the Pepsi Bottling Co. in Somers, N.Y., even the employees’ money is a health concern. Since the organization introduced a “financial wellness program” in 2008, more than 20,000 of its 33,000 U.S. employees have participated.
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05/14/2010
If current demographic trends continue, employers in the future will have larger minority workforces—and see declining employee participation in retirement benefits plans. According to a recent study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, only 28% of Hispanic employees and 41% of black workers take part in retirement plans. Use the following four strategies to increase minority employee participation in your retirement plan.
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05/12/2010
Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz ...
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04/19/2010
Lately, employees have been winning when they sue over profit-sharing or retirement plans based on company stock that rapidly lost investment value. In the wake of the Enron bankruptcy scandal, juries sympathized with workers who paid the price for lousy (or illegal) management. Now, employers are gaining the upper hand again, as courts recognize that companies are often in a no-win situation when it comes to providing stock information.
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04/15/2010
Eighty percent of employers that stopped contributing to employees’ 401(k)s in 2009 plan to restore company matches by the end of this year, according to Hewitt Associates. To make it easier for employees to amass adequate retirement savings, Hewitt recommends four steps employers can take:
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02/24/2010
Employers with pension and welfare benefit plans with fewer than 100 participants must deposit participant contributions within seven days of receiving them. The U.S. Department of Labor issued the new rule in January.
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02/16/2010
President Obama used his State of the Union address in January to call on Congress to create a new kind of employer-sponsored retirement account: the “automatic workplace IRA.” By default, workers would be enrolled in a direct-deposit individual retirement account. Workers could opt out of the program, but they would proactively have to do so.
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02/16/2010
The U.S. Department of Labor has sued Mid-State Express, alleging that the trucking company collected health care premiums from its employees, but never actually used them to buy insurance. As a result, employees face more than $3 million in unpaid medical bills.
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01/27/2010
Philadelphia Eagles backup quarterback Michael Vick may be back in the NFL, but the litigation continues. The Employee Benefits Security Administration discovered that pension funds in one of Vick's companies were improperly diverted to Vick to pay his criminal restitution. Now Vick must pay $400,000.
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01/03/2010
HR Law 101: The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) governs the administration of employee retirement plans. Pension plans fall into two major categories: qualified and nonqualified plans ...
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01/02/2010
HR Law 101: The Pension Protection Act of 2006 allows employers to more easily move employees from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans. It also established tougher standards for employers to meet to ensure existing pensions’ solvency.
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