labor lawAdivision of labor law center

The COBRA subsidy is one of the most notable features of the ARRA or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law on February 17, 2009. 

The employee will pay just 35% of the usual COBRA premium. Under this plan, employees who lose healthcare coverage due to terminate will qualify for a 65% government subsidy on continued group insurance coverage under COBRA.

A new U.S. Department of Labor COBRA subsidy fact sheet outlines this program.

Under this program, the employer still pays the entire healthcare premium to the insurance company. The employer can then deduct 65% of the total premium from his or her payroll taxes.

Suppose a former employee of the XYZ Corp. normally pays $900 for COBRA coverage. Under the ARRA COBRA subsidy, the employee pays 35% of that amount, (more…)

A significant change to the FMLA regulations affects how employers must track FMLA leave. This is the fourth in a continuing series of articles on the new FMLA regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Labor, which go into effect  on January 16, 2009.

Under the old regulations, an employer had to track FMLA leave using the shortest period of time that their payroll system could track. If the payroll system rounded to the quarter-hour, the employer was required to permit the employee to use 45 minutes of FMLA leave, or 2.25 hours of FMLA leave, on a particular day.

The new FMLA regulations in their entirety can be found in the 201 pages of the November Federal Register.

Under the 2009 regulations, employers may track FMLA leave using the shortest increment that the employer uses to track other forms of leave, such as (more…)

The new South Carolina Illegal Immigration Reform Act requires employers to verify the legal status of new employees.

One way to comply with this law is to use E-verify from the Department of Homeland Security. The E-verify database combines records from the Social Security Administration, immigration records and other federal agencies to eliminate identity theft. It also prevents employers from breaking the law by employing undocumented workers.

The state suggests that another way to comply with the law is to establish whether the employee has a South Carolina driver’s license or other government issued identity document. Employers are warned that in some cases, employers who refuse to hire legal immigrants, discriminate against Hispanic workers, or try to specify which forms of id they will accept from the list of acceptable documents on the I-9, may be in violation of federal law. It is not clear yet (more…)

On January 1, 2009 the Ohio minimum wage increases by 30 cents from $7.00 to $7.30 per hour.  

On that same date, the Ohio minimum wage for tipped employees increases by 15 cents, from $3.50 to $3.65 per hour, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce. Any tipped Ohio employee who does not average $3.65 per hour in tips must be paid the difference in wages by the employer.

Under Ohio law, smaller companies can pay employers less. Companies with revenue less than $267,000 in 2009 can pay just $6.55 under the Ohio minimum wage law. However, when the federal minimum wage increases on July 24, 2009, they must pay at least $7.25 per hour. Youths who are 14 and 15 years of age can also be paid these reduced wages.

A constitutional amendment passed by Ohio voters (more…)

With the current economic crisis, many employers are considering giving workers additional unpaid time off during the holidays. This includes giving workers Friday, November 28 (the day after Thanksgiving) and/or Friday, December 26 (the day after Christmas) off without pay.

Other employers are considering closing for an entire week between Christmas and New Years.

However, these tactics raise issues around the payment of exempt salaried employees that every employer needs to be aware of. (more…)