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Supreme Court to Decide if Employers Must Help Pregnant Employees

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether the Pregnancy Discrimination Act requires employers to accommodate pregnant employees, it announced July 1. The court agreed to review Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc., a case from last year in which the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a corporate policy that does not include […]

New Health Savings Account Limits for 2009

Based on the cost of living, the IRS has increased for 2009 the maximum contribution levels for health savings accounts (HSAs) and out-of-pocket spending limits for high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) that must be used in conjunction with HSAs. For 2009, the maximum annual HSA contribution for individuals is $3,000 and $5,950 for families. Catch-up contributions […]

Do Interns Crash the Learned House of Geeks?

It’s hard to believe that the “wedding crashers” would be allowed to crash into the citadel of Internet security and secrecy, that house of learned geeks—the Google campus! A new movie, “The Internship,” starring Will Farrell, Vince Vaughn, and Owen Wilson, was rumored to be filming in Silicon Valley.   And yes, these 40-ish guys are […]

Outstanding Plan Loan Amounts Grow, Fidelity Reports

The percentage of 401(k) plan participants borrowing from their retirement accounts has remained steady amid record levels of savings in the accounts, but one data point from Fidelity Investments’ latest quarterly analysis of the thousands of accounts it manages could be cause for concern. According to the retirement plan administrator for 13.5 million 401(k) participants, […]

401(k) Survey Results: How Does Your 401(k) Compare?

By Stephen Bruce, PHR Editor, HR Daily Advisor Just My E-pinion For years, BLR® has surveyed compensation and benefits professionals. This year, we have expanded our program with a series of brief, targeted benefits surveys. In today’s Advisor, we’ve got the results of the 401(k) survey. The findings are interesting and will help all readers […]

News Notes: Free Manual On Evaluating Workplace Safety And Health Changes

If you’re like many employers, you continually make changes in the workplace to boost employee health and safety. But it can be difficult to measure whether the changes are effective or whether other fixes are needed. Now, the National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has made a new manual and a companion webpage […]

Individual Mandate Repeal May Result in Millions Fewer Insured but No Major Premium Hike, RAND finds

Repealing the individual mandate would result in 12 million fewer adults with health insurance in 2014, but would bump up premiums for coverage only by 2.4 percent, researchers at the RAND Corporation say. No Death Spiral … Health insurance premiums would only be 2.4 percent higher than they would be with an individual mandate and […]

Ask the Expert: We have a time clock system that automatically deducts lunch hours from only one department. Is this legal?

November 11, 2010 Employers are not required to pay employees for time spent during bona fide meal periods. Bona fide meal periods are ordinarily breaks that last at least 30 minutes, but they may be shorter under special conditions. They do not include coffee or snack breaks; these are rest periods that may have to […]

News Notes: Employers Not Strictly Liable For Supervisor Sexual Harassment

When Leslie Kohler sued under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act claiming that her supervisor at Inter-Tel Technologies sexually harassed her, Inter-Tel said it wasn’t liable because it had taken reasonable steps to prevent harassment and Kohler had unreasonably failed to take advantage of the employer’s corrective opportunities by failing to report the incidents. Kohler […]