Category: News

16 Oct

Higher hourly pay may not help fix poverty

Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 probably won’t fix poverty, and might actually hurt poor people instead. That’s the message of Ryan Young’s Oct. 2 article, published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Raising the minimum wage is a top policy issue at the local, state, and now federal level. A current bill, the Raise the […]

11 Oct

Rethinking healthcare benefits for better recruitment, retention

Employee benefits are an important part of recruiting and retaining talent and most plan sponsors offer a range of benefits, including medical, pharmacy, behavioral health, dental, vision, disability and life. A common industry practice has been to offer each of these benefits as a standalone product, but this creates a disconnected picture of the whole […]

11 Oct

How to avoid mishaps in the run-up to open enrollment

With the start of open enrollment season each fall, Jennifer Benz takes to social media with some trepidation to gauge the mood of employees. The results often confirm her worst fears. “We look at the open enrollment tweets every fall,” says the communications leader at Segal Benz, a benefits communication firm. “You see people are […]

As mandatory sexual harassment training expands, here’s what employers need to know

There was a time when sexual harassment training was a “just check the box, let’s just get this over with” annual event, says Andrew Rawson, chief learning officer for Traliant, a company that provides sexual harassment training. It was “like renewing your driver’s license or renewing your car registration,” he says. “As long as you […]

11 Oct

Resist the urge to access: The impact of the Stored Communications Act on employers

As an employer or manager, have you ever collected a resigning employee’s employer-owned laptop or cellphone and discovered that the employee left a personal email account automatically logged in? Did you have the urge to look at what the employee was doing and who the employee was talking to right before resigning? Perhaps to see […]

02 Oct

6 voluntary benefits your employees want

In this age of the multigenerational workforce and a tight labor market, a one-size-fits-all group benefits model with medical, prescription, dental, vision and a retirement plan just doesn’t cut it. A workforce with Baby Boomers, Gen X’ers, Millennials and Generation Z means that employees are going to find the run-of-the-mill benefits plan inadequate. Ditto for […]

02 Oct

Health insurance surpass $20,000 per year, hitting a record

The cost of family health coverage in the U.S. now tops $20,000, an annual survey of employers found, a record high that has pushed an increasing number of American workers into plans that cover less or cost more, or force them out of the insurance market entirely. “It’s as much as buying a basic economy […]

02 Oct

A look at the DOL’s final rule: White collar exemption and overtime

Reporting that 1.3 million workers will now become eligible for overtime pay, the DOL has released its final rule to update the exemption requirements of the Executive, Administrative and Professional employee (EAP) as well as highly compensation executive (HCE) classifications. After overcoming many hurdles, injunction enjoined and invalidation, the DOL released its final rule Tuesday with an […]

02 Oct

Best strategies for implementing a student debt benefits program

Employers have begun making greater investments in their employees’ overall well-being and placing a bigger emphasis on student loan debt as a source of financial stress. Managing student loan debt is an issue that impacts more than 44 million Americans and has exploded to a national total of more than $1.5 trillion. Employers are in […]