Disasters: Payroll, Benefits, and Alternative Worksites

Exempt Employees and Disasters

Exempt employees are generally paid their normal amount if the workday is shortened. Docking, or reducing pay of exempt employees who are scheduled to work, but who do not because of an emergency, may affect the employees’ status of being exempt from overtime, because, by docking, you are treating them like non-exempt employees.

Generally, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) permits an employer to make a deduction for a full-day absence for an exempt employee—but only for a full-day absence—when an exempt employee chooses not report to work due to an emergency.

However, if the exempt employee is absent for only part of the day because of the emergency, the employer may not make a deduction from pay.

Notification and Communication

Guaranteed in an emergency, you’re going to want to be able to communicate with your employees; When’s the office going to open? Where should they go? What should they do to stay abreast of developments. Unfortunately, notification is often difficult or near impossible because disasters tend to disrupt routine means of communication.

For starters, have a written policy in place that instructs employees how they can expect to receive notice of a closing, for example,

• Listen to a local radio station,
• Call a special telephone number,
• Engage a telephone chain
• Check on the company website

Alternate Worksites

Employers may wish to establish an alternate worksite. Businesses that have to stay functioning typically have made arrangements for an alternate worksite. Depending on the nature and length of the disruption or disaster, other employers may find they need to set up alternatives.

In any case, the employers need to set forth clear plans for how to communicate, where the alternate workplace is located, when employees should go there, how employees will be transported, and so on.

A Way to Pay

HR must be prepared to get paychecks to employees, even when the business is closed. Employers may want to create a disaster info sheet that compensation staffers can keep at home that includes home phone numbers and cell phone numbers for key HR managers, IT staff, payroll suppliers, and banks.

Compensation.BLR.com, now thoroughly revamped with easier navigation and more complete compensation information, will tell you what’s being paid right in your state—or even metropolitan area—for hundreds of jobs. Try it at no cost and get a complimentary special report. Read more.

Direct deposit

Employers should contact their payroll vendors for guidance on providing direct deposit during emergencies.

Benefits

Check to see that your benefits vendors have disaster plans. Find out what they are, how they affect the organization’s operations, and how employees interface with them during a disaster.

Of course, disaster pay is just the tip of the iceberg for comp managers. Sometimes you think comp is going to be simple, but then, when you get into the nitty-gritty, like disaster pay, it’s not simple at all. How to handle it? Try the comp managers multi-tool.

Comp Managers Multi-Tool

You know those knives that have a blade for every purpose? That’s what comp people need—a comp managers’ multi-tool that deals with everything from disaster pay to regional pay rates to exec compensation and benefits.

Many of the professionals we serve have found their compensation multi-tool at Compensation.BLR.com, BLR’s comprehensive compensation website.

And there’s great news: The site has just been revamped in two important ways. First, compliance focus information has been updated to include the latest on COBRA, Lilly Ledbetter, and FMLA. Second, user features are enhanced to make the site even quicker to respond to your particular needs:

• Topics Navigator—Lets you drill down by topical areas to get to the right data fast.
• Customizable Homepage—Can be configured to display whatever content you want to see most often.
• Menu Navigation—Displays all of the main content areas and tools that you need in a simple, easy format.
• Quick Links—Enables you to quickly navigate to all the new and updated content areas.

The services provided by this unique tool include:

• Localized Salary Finder. Based on reliable research among thousands of employers, here are pay scales (including 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles) for hundreds of commonly held jobs, from line worker to president of the company. The data are customized for your state and metro area, your industry, and your company size, so you can base your salaries on what’s offered in your specific market, not nationally.

Try BLR’s all-in-one compensation website, Compensation.BLR.com, and get a complimentary special report, Top 100 FLSA Overtime Q&As, no matter what you decide. Find out more.

• State and Federal Wage-Hour and Other Legal Advice. Plain-English explanations of wage-hour and other compensation and benefits-related law at both federal and state levels. “State” means the laws of your state because the site is customized to your use. (Other states can be added at a modest extra charge.)
• Job Descriptions. The website provides them by the hundreds, already written, legally reviewed, and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandate that essential job functions be separated from those less critical. All descriptions carry employment grade levels to current norms—another huge time-saver.
• Merit Increase, Salary, and Benefits Surveys. The service includes the results of three surveys a year. Results for exempt and nonexempt employees are reported separately.
• Daily Updates. Comp and benefits news updated daily (as is the whole site).
• "Ask the Experts" Service. E-mail a question to our editors and get a personalized response within 3 business days.

If we sound as if we’re excited about the program, it’s because we are. For about $3 a working day, the help it offers to those with compensation responsibilities is enormous.

This one’s definitely worth a look, which you can get by clicking the links below.

Click here to get more information or start a no-cost trial and get a complimentary special report!