Articles by Girish Anand

May 5, 2014

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'Young Invincibles' Enroll in Obamacare at 28 Percent Clip

The Obama administration has released figures on total health care enrollment through April 19 (the extended deadline), showing that 28 percent of all state and federal enrollees fell into the premium-lowering 18-to-34-year-old demographic. Original hopes were for a 40 percent enrollment of "young invincibles" in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces, but administration off...

May 4, 2014

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DOL Rewrites COBRA Notice to Make It More ACA-Friendly

COBRA

The Department of Labor (DOL) has published a proposed rule that would amend the COBRA Notice that employees receive when leaving a company that offers health insurance to make it clear these employees can purchase health insurance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces. Under provisions of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA, workers leaving jobs or underg...

May 2, 2014

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Report Says Employers Could Save Trillions by Shifting to ACA

American companies with 50 or more employees could save $3.25 trillion over the next decade by dropping health coverage and paying the shared responsibility penalties of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), while shifting their employees onto the Obamacare marketplaces, a report by a division of McGraw Hill Financial concludes. In a press release, S&P Capital IQ Global Markets Intelligence ...

May 2, 2014

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Seattle Mayor Proposes $15-an-Hour Minimum Wage

Vaulting his city to the forefront of the nationwide minimum wage debate, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray is sending his City Council a plan to phase in a $15-an-hour minimum wage for employees in the Emerald City. The mayor said his proposal would "improve the lives of workers who can barely afford to live" in the high-tech city. Mayor Murray's initiative has been bolstered by ...

May 1, 2014

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OSHA Chief Proposes Swifter, Harsher Whistleblower Violation Penalties

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) oversees enforcement of the nation's many whistleblower protection laws, which largely involve retaliation safeguards for workplace whistleblowers, and its chief, David Michaels, feels the agency lacks the enforcement tools it needs. Testifying before the Senate Sub-Committee on Employment and Workplace Safety, Michaels pushed f...

April 29, 2014

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Senate Confirms David Weil as WHD Chief

The long-vacant position of administrator of the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the Department of Labor (DOL) has been filled by the Senate's confirmation of David Weil. Weil was the principal investigator for a report submitted to the DOL in May 2010 titled "Improving Workplace Conditions through Strategic Enforcement: Report to the Wage and Hour Division Strategic Enforcement....

April 28, 2014

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Sixth Circuit Court Holds That Telecommuting Is 'Attendance'

In a complete break with previous court decisions regarding telecommuting as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has not only thrown open the doors of working at home as a reasonable accommodation but also established it as a new mode of "attendance" in the modern, technologically driven workplace. In EEOC ...

April 27, 2014

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Obama Orders DHS to Move Alone on Immigration Reform

Failing, so far at least, to persuade Congress to pass his vision of immigration reform, President Obama has ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to “conduct a review of practices” to ensure “we are carrying out these policies in the most humane way possible,” DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson told ABC News this past week that his agency "pretty soon"...

April 25, 2014

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Cover Oregon Expected to Cover No More

The Obamacare website for Oregon is expected to shut down today and defer its future sign-ups to HealthCare.gov, the federal marketplace for health insurance. To date, Cover Oregon has been completely dysfunctional and has not signed up a single person on its site. Maryland and Massachusetts, which experienced similar but not so completely dire problems, may follow in Oregon's footste...

April 24, 2014

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Northwestern Football Players to Vote on Unionization Tomorrow

Football scholarship athletes at Northwestern University go to the ballot box tomorrow to decide whether to recognize a union to bargain in their behalf. The vote follows a ruling by the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that student athletes are employees of the university. If approved by the 76 potential voters on the Evanston, Ill. campus, the College Athle...

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About author

Girish Anand

Recent Articles

Practical articles on HR, Safety, compliance, and people operations—written for real businesses, not legal textbooks.

U.S. Department of Labor Officially Restores Prior Overtime Exemption Rules

On May 14th, 2026, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced it has officially rescinded the 2024 overtime exemption rules. Specifically, the WHD published a technical amendment to restore previous 2019 regulations that dictated overtime exemptions for...

NLRB General Counsel Takes Action to Tackle Current Case Backlog

On May 6th, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and NLRB General Counsel Crystal Stowe Carey announced the bulk transfer of thousands of labor practice cases. Specifically, this action fulfills an initiative signed by the NLRB General Counsel earlier this year. Overall, the initiative...

Privacy Agency Invites Comments from Businesses on the CCPA’s Usage of Personal Data

Recently, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) issued a call for comments on the current state of personal data collection under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Specifically, the invitation to deliver remarks was issued on April 20th, 2026. The information provided by the...

DOL Proposes New Joint Employer Rule To Unify Standards Under Federal Labor Laws

In April 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a proposed rule to establish a single, clear standard for determining when joint-employer status applies under three major federal laws: the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Migrant and Seasonal...

DOL Updates Enforcement Approach for Employee Benefit Plans: What Employers Should Know

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced a significant change in its enforcement of employee benefit plan rules. The DOL will now focus more closely on serious violations that harm workers and retirees, meaning compliant employers may face less scrutiny under the updated approach.

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Articles by Girish Anand