The United States is currently nearing full employment with the unemployment rate under 4%. Such a hypercompetitive labor market calls for innovation and creativity in luring and retaining top talent. A new study that sheds light on how employees value benefits may help employers maximize the “bang for the buck” of benefits packages offered to prospective and current workers.
An article published by Bloomberg highlights a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper that reveals which benefits employees prefer, and actually assigns a dollar amount that employees are willing to forgo in the form of wages in exchange for each benefit. The study’s data (displayed below) shows that in many cases American workers are willing to forgo “substantial” earnings in exchange for specific non-wage benefits that more than offset the equivalent cost to the employer of offering such benefits. Continue Reading
Recently, an insurance company released a 
With Friday’s agreement to re-open government operations, at least temporarily, E-Verify is once again operational. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has provided the following guidance to employers who participate in the E-Verify program.
With Super Bowl LIII this Sunday and March Madness fast approaching, it is important to consider the impact of office pools on the workplace.
Using a vendor for your COBRA compliance does not mean you are safe from claims. The employer bears ultimate responsibility for complying with COBRA. It appears that Pepsico and Lockheed may be about to learn this lesson. Both were sued recently in Hillsborough County for failure to send proper COBRA election notices after employees terminated employment. In both cases, the COBRA notices at issue appear to be from a third party COBRA administrator. The plaintiffs allege that the COBRA notices did not contain all of the items required under the 
We are pleased to welcome 
One of the casualties of the partial government shutdown is the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify program. Employers that participate in E-Verify verify the identity and employment eligibility of newly hired employees by electronically matching information provided by employees on the Form I-9 against records available to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The Dave & Buster’s restaurant chain recently settled a class action lawsuit claiming it violated ERISA’s “discrimination” rules by reducing hours of various employees to cause them to lose eligibility for the company’s group health plan. After over three years of litigation in the Southern District of New York and suffering some procedural losses along the way, Dave & Buster’s agreed to settle the matter for $7.425 million. After attorneys’ fees and costs, we estimate the employees will receive about $2,100 each.
“He’s making a list and checking it twice. He’s going to find out who’s naughty or nice… performance evaluations are…” Coming to town? Indeed. The end of year is not only holiday season, but also the time of year when a number of employers complete performance evaluations of their employees.