New Due Diligence Under Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

March 30th, 2009 Posted by Amelia

Companies will have to add yet another step in their when buying or merging with a new company, because of the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. That law permits employees to sue for , even many years after the fact.

 

Twenty years after going to work for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, a woman by the name of Lilly Ledbetter learned through an anonymous tipster that she was making less money for doing the same job as her male coworkers.

 

Ledbetter calculated that she had lost $200,000 in pay compared to the men, not to mention the lost and pension funds. Ledbetter sued over the issue, but was blocked by rulings that she had not met the 180-day deadline for filing her petition. She took the matter to the Supreme Court, which upheld lower court rulings in a split decision.

 

Now, as a way of rectifying situations like hers, the U.S. Senate has passed, and President Obama  has signed into law, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. The new Act allows for beyond the old 180-day deadline. The Senate vote was 61 in favor and 36 against.

 

This means that employers must retain records on the basis of compensation decisions far longer, to defend against a possible lawsuit.

 

When a company is bought out by another, the new owners also purchase any liability for discrimination or other . Prospective owners need to assess the risk of the company’s employee and compensation system, before making a final purchase decision. 

 

The President, in signing it one week later, said Ledbetter had not planned to become a household name when she took on Goodyear. “She was just a good hard worker who did her job – and she did it well – for nearly two decades before discovering that for years, she was paid less than her for doing the very same work,” President Obama said.

 

He added that he intended (more…)

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New April I-9 Form Deadline

March 27th, 2009 Posted by Cara

The deadline for employers’ compliance with changes to the is April 3, 2009.

 

Essentially, the U.S. Citizenship and immigration Services, the agency in charge, has given employers a several-weeks respite.

 

Action by the new Presidential administration has helped the cause of those seeking a delay. Numerous and regulatory deadlines put into action by the Bush Administration during its final months were postponed recently. of the White House, , put out a memo urging federal agencies to take an additional 60 or 90 days to review all of those policies. The intention was to insure that the policies would be consistent with the standards of President .

 

An published by the USCIS in December of 2008 originally required all employers in the U.S. to begin using a new by February 2, 2009. Under the new regulations, (more…)

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COBRA Premium Reduction

March 25th, 2009 Posted by Amelia

As daily readers of this blog know, the ARRA or American Recovery and Reinvestment of 2009 provides for extended COBRA coverage at reduced cost for many unemployed workers.

 

, or the Consolidated Act of 1985, permits employees to extend their group health coverage for up to 18 months when they lose coverage due to unemployment, a reduction in hours, divorce, or similar circumstances. COBRA also applies to dependents who lose group health coverage for similar reasons, or due to the employee’s death. Employees who are fired for gross misconduct are not eligible for COBRA coverage.

 

The big news is that ARRA allows employees to pay just 35% of their usual COBRA premium. It also gives a special period to sign up for COBRA coverage. This covers any worker who has lost their job between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009.

 

Under the COBRA Premium Reduction, the employee can pay just 35% of the usual COBRA premium. The employer pays the remaining of the premium, and then takes a tax credit on the quarterly federal payroll taxes. In this way, the federal government is picking up the tab on of the employees premium, and there is no gap in coverage.  

 

The COBRA Premium Reduction under the 2009 package applies for a maximum of 9 months.

 

Employees who did not opt to take advantage of COBRA coverage have a second chance (more…)

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D.C. Mandatory Sick Leave Rules

March 23rd, 2009 Posted by Madison

Employers throughout the U.S. are carefully watching what is happening these days in the District of Columbia.

 

D.C. has approved a controversial new known as the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act of 2008, which essentially requires employers to provide paid to their workers. The act may be the harbinger of paid elsewhere, and has become an important topic among .

 

Employees who would be eligible are those who, first of all, spend at least 50% of their in the District of Columbia. They must also have accumulated a year of and at least 1,000 hours of work in the previous 12 months, under the proposed act.

 

The new law is quite broad. Employers would be required to give paid sick leave to any of these for any connected with (more…)

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COBRA Subsidy Regulations

March 20th, 2009 Posted by Derrick

Good news for HR pros who complain that the COBRA subsidy has placed an unfair burden on employers: the federal government, not employers, will be responsible for enforcing some of the subsidy provisions.

 

Under the or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, employees involuntarily terminated between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009 qualify for a subsidy on extended .

 

However, the COBRA subsidy has income limits. Reduced subsidies apply to individuals with an () of $125,000 or more and couples (filing jointly) with   of  $250,000 or more. Individuals with adjusted over $145,000 and couples with income over $290,000 for the year they receive (more…)

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