Month: June 2012

U.S. Supreme Court Building

Supreme Court Upholds Healthcare Reform Law

By Jessica Webb-Ayer The wait is over: The U.S. Supreme Court has decided that the massive healthcare reform law (also known as the Affordable Care Act, or ACA) enacted in March 2010 is constitutional. So what happened, and what does this mean for employers? Read the Supreme Court’s decision on Health Care Reform The most […]

Maine Voters Latest to Consider Marriage Referenda

Voters in Washington state and Maryland will weigh in on whether same-sex marriage should be legal in their states. Employers in these states — as well as those in adjacent states where same-sex marriage is not legal — would be wise to monitor developments and use the upcoming months to prepare for any possible changes […]

O—What an Employee! And for Only $10,000 per Year

By Elaine Quayle She was 46 years old. She had worked before her first marriage, held a high-profile, “nonprofit” job, and endured some traumatic and turbulent years. Maybe a job was just what she needed. But Jackie Kennedy Onassis certainly was no ordinary applicant! She was Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, a former First Lady, but […]

Head-in-Sand Management, Dead-in-Water Defense

More often than not, managers avoid giving honest evaluations. Maybe they fear causing hurt feelings or maybe they don’t know what to do, but the result is the same—a lost lawsuit. The solution? The two Cs—Clarify and Coach. A Cautionary Tale—How Many Zeros? One juror explained the simple system his jury had used to determine […]

Does Lady Gaga Need Preposterous PPE?

By Elaine V. Quayle When Lady Gaga was hit in the head during a concert in New Zealand, suffering a self-described “clonker” [concussion] and black eyes, there was one conclusion that savvy workplace experts could arrive at—she needs some preposterous PPE to protect her. And she may be just the person to design it! When […]

Compensation Administration: Do You Use Automatic Pay Increases?

A formal compensation administration program is the basic management tool for ensuring that employees are satisfied. You can accomplish this in a variety of ways, but at the end of the day the goal is employee attraction, motivation, and retention. Does your compensation administration program utilize merit pay? Automatic increases? Cost-of-living increases? Bonuses? Some combination […]

Older worker at desk

Linking performance problems to age is a dangerous practice

Employers may be experiencing the nagging dread of age discrimination more frequently these days. Simultaneous to the surge of baby boomers reaching retirement age comes the decision by many to delay their exit from the workforce, setting up a perfect legal storm centered on age discrimination. Employees who saw their retirement nest eggs dwindle during […]