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Legal Risks to Consider in Benefit Programs

When implementing an employee benefit program, there are a lot of considerations. Clearly, the employer must consider what benefits will be advantageous in order to attract the right employees. But employers also must be sure they know what risks they’re taking on when opting to include specific benefits.

Keeping High Potential Employees Happy

According to a survey we covered yesterday, only 15% of workers feel like they have room to move up the chain or in pay grade at their jobs. When there is no room to grow for employees, especially high performing ones, they are much more likely to leave the company. Today we’ll look at some […]

Salary Still Important

More than half of workers say salary is still the top factor they think about when job hunting but other benefits are becoming increasingly important too, according to new research from global recruitment specialist Randstad.

Recent Big-Ticket HIPAA Settlements Drive Home Need for Organizational Commitment

By David Slaughter, JD, Senior Legal Editor The month of July saw two hospitals reach multimillion-dollar Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy and security settlements with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Each case began with that most mundane of data breaches, the stolen laptop, but once HHS investigators started […]

ERISA, FLSA, FMLA Penalties Increased by DOL Rule

By David Slaughter, JD, Senior Legal Editor Maximum penalties for violating many employment and benefits laws were increased, some of them substantially, by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in a departmentwide rule published July 1 (81 Fed. Reg. 43429).

happiness

Managing Employee Status Changes Under the Affordable Care Act

By Jennifer Carsen, JD, Senior Legal Editor So, you think you’ve got a pretty good handle on this whole Affordable Care Act (ACA) thing. You know that you’re an applicable large employer (or ALE—and that “ALE” isn’t merely that thing you want to drink a lot of after a day of filling out ACA paperwork).