Category: Benefits and Compensation

This topic provides guidance on how to handle compensation issues in a way that attracts and retains the best talent and advances the strategic goals of your business. You get news and tips on what’s going on nationally and in the states, and updates on changes in regulations, possible governmental action, and emerging compensation trends.

Managing Incentive Compensation Plan Changes: 5 Steps for Success

by John Ristuccia, vice president, Professional Services, Optymyze An incentive compensation plan, in which salespeople are compensated based on their ability to meet established performance goals, is key to building an engaged sales force aligned with the overall goals of the organization. Done well, these plans are highly effective, in terms of driving positive selling […]

HHS Collaborating with Private Employers to Encourage Marketplace Enrollment

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced a commitment from 17 companies to support enrollment in the Health Insurance Marketplace. These companies will connect freelance professionals, entrepreneurs, and customers with information and resources to encourage enrollment in affordable coverage throughout the Open Enrollment period beginning November 1 and ending on January […]

commission

How Executive Compensation is Different from Other Compensation

When setting employee pay, there are a lot of things to consider. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than with executive-level pay considerations. Executive compensation differs quite a lot from other forms of compensation, and the thought process that goes into setting it must differ accordingly. Executive-level employees, just like other employees, are motivated in […]

What Is Pay Compression?

Pay compression is the situation in which an organization has negligible differences in pay between people who have differing skill sets and/or experience levels. It often happens when current employee pay raises don’t keep up with increases in the market pay rate—resulting in a situation in which new hires are hired in at levels similar […]

HIPAA

HIPAA Experts Highlight Recent ‘Spike’ in Enforcement

A recent surge in monetary Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) settlements is altering the compliance landscape at a time when new technical and legal challenges also are coming into play, practitioners and regulators told a recent conference.

COBRA

Appeals Court: Same-Sex Spouse Had No COBRA Notice Claim

by Gwen Cofield To have standing to sue an employer for a Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) notice violation, the individual alleging the violation must be either a participant or a beneficiary, as those terms are defined in Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). COBRA coverage is designed to continue, for a limited time, […]

Paid Leave: Coming to a Jurisdiction Near You?

Although the federal government may not go for paid leave, many entities and jurisdictions are taking it up on their own, says Susan G. Fentin, a partner with Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C. in Springfield, Massachusetts. Fentin’s Commonwealth of Massachusetts does have a paid leave law, and she shared her perspective on paid leave at […]

vacation

Unlimited Vacation Time—California Here We Come!

Should you consider this Silicon Valley trend that’s spreading across the United States? Attorney Susan Fentin, a partner with Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C., in Springfield, Massachusetts, offered her take on unlimited vacation at BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, held recently in Las Vegas.

IRS Again Leaves Most Annual Retirement Plan Limits Unchanged

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) again left most annual threshold and benefit levels unchanged when it announced them for 2017 on October 27, 2016. Employers and retirement plan administrators can apply the new rates as they prepare their plans for next year and conduct nondiscrimination testing. Notice 2016-62 laid out the latest changes to cost-of-living […]