Expert Compliance Insights & Tips for Businesses

October 19, 2010

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States Begin Recalculating Minimum Wages Based on CPI

Vermont and Washington have both announced new minimum wage rates to take effect on New Year's Day 2011 based on year-to-year inflation. Vermont's Department of Labor announced it will increase that state's minimum wage from $8.06 to $8.15 based on an annual inflation rate of 1.1 percent as calculated in August. Washington's Department of Labor and Industries pegged its yearly inflation rate at...

October 18, 2010

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Employment Litigation Rises for Third Straight Year

In its annual survey of corporate legal departments, Fulbright and Jaworski L.L.P. found that 87 percent of respondents have been involved in employment and labor lawsuits in 2010, up from 83 percent in 2009, while 53 percent of those responding actually initiated the legal action, up from the prior year's 46 percent. Overall, 93 percent of the respondents foresee an equal or even larger ...

October 15, 2010

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Arizona Minimum Wage to Rise to $7.35 on Jan. 1, 2011

Arizona minimum wage

Arizona will raise its minimum wage 10 cents above the federal rate on Jan. 1, 2011, bringing it to $7.35 an hour In 2006, Arizona voters enacted the “Raise the Minimum Wage for Working Arizonans Act.” This law provides for annual minimum wage rate hikes based on increases in the cost of living. The cost of living is based on the federal Consumer Price Index (CPI) for All Urban Cons...

October 12, 2010

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President Signs Accessibility Act

ADA

Congress has passed and the president signed legislation expanding on the rights of disabled persons to use, access and enjoy the benefits of modern technology on computers, smartphones, televisions and other communication devices. "The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act will make it easier for people who are deaf, blind or live with a visual impairment to do what many...

October 8, 2010

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Feds Threaten to Take Over Hawaii Safety Inspections

Worried that staffing levels, response times and frequency of health and safety inspections have all fallen in Hawaii, Federal OSHA is threatening to retake inspection and enforcement functions from the state's Department of Labor, which has been in charge for the past 25 years. In that quarter-century span, workplace inspections have reportedly tumbled 90 percent while the number of inspe...

October 7, 2010

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OSHA Reveals Top Ten Violations of 2010

The year isn't officially over yet, but the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has already revealed its list of the Top Ten Most Cited Violations for 2010 (list below). The occasion was the recent National Safety Council (NSC) meeting. Employers, if you want to avoid joining the list of cited companies, visit Personnel Concepts' Web site section on OSHA Programs and Kits ...

October 6, 2010

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California's New Workers' Comp Poster Must Be Up by Oct. 8

Personnel Concepts would like to remind all employers in California that the state's revised workers' compensation poster, known as "Notice to Employees--Injuries Caused by Work," goes into effect this Friday, Oct. 8, 2010, according to the California Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC). The poster is mandatory and must be displayed in both English and Spanish if there are Spanish...

October 5, 2010

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Massachusetts Mandates Employee Notification of Negative Reviews

In a law taking effect this past August, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has mandated that employers affirmatively inform their employees when anything negative is posted in their personnel files or records. The Office of the Attorney General is in charge of enforcing this new legal provision, but it so far has offered no guidance of how to comply with the law. No matter where your company is...

October 1, 2010

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OSHA Rates 27 State-Run Programs

Following its scathing rebuke of Nevada's Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) program in 2009, Federal OSHA launched a review of all 27 states that administer their own OSH programs and has now released the results. The EFAME (Enhanced Federal Annual Monitoring and Evaluation) reports provide details of the problems and cover fiscal year 2009. Most problems are minor instances where the states...

September 28, 2010

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Even as PPACA Kicks in, More and More Americans Lose Health Coverage

The percentage of Americans with employment-based health insurance dipped below 60 percent in 2009, a lot of it attributed to job losses, according to the latest study by the Washington, D.C.-based Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI). Overall, the percentage of individuals under age 65 with employment-based coverage declined from 61.1 percent in 2008 to 59 percent in 2009—its...

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