Articles by Girish Anand

November 20, 2013

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DOL Revises Rules to Reduce Burden on Businesses

The Department of Labor (DOL) today announced four rules designed to reduce unnecessary burdens on employers by updating or rescinding obsolete regulations and requirements. A rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) updates and streamlines the standards for the use of mechanical power presses while the remaining three rules from the Employment and Training Administr...

November 20, 2013

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WHD and N.Y. Agencies Vow to Fight Misclassification of Employees

Officials of the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (WHD), the New York State Labor Department and New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman's office have signed memoranda of understanding to protect the rights of employees by preventing their misclassification as independent contractors or other nonemployee statuses. The memoranda of understanding represent a...

November 19, 2013

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E-Verify Adds SSN Fraud Detection Feature

E-Verify added an enhancement that will help identify and deter fraudulent use of Social Security numbers (SSNs) for employment eligibility verification. E-Verify is now able to detect patterns that indicate an SSN may have been used fraudulently. The enhancement strengthens the integrity of the E-Verify program by implementing standards that have proven effective in protecting in...

November 19, 2013

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OSHA Issues Black Friday Guidance to Avoid Injuries

In advance of the holiday season, the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is encouraging retail employers to take precautions to prevent workplace injuries during major sales events, including Black Friday. This year marks the fifth year anniversary of the death of a worker killed upon opening a large store for a Black Friday sales event. In 2008...

November 19, 2013

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Three 20-Year-Olds Build Better Obamacare Mouse Trap

If you build it, they will come, and some two million have already visited thehealthsherpa.com, a site built in three days that uses data from HealthCare.gov to provide almost instantaneous quotes on Obamacare health insurance policies. The site, coded by three 20-year-olds in just three days drawing from a HealthCare.gov data feed, is simplicity incarnate. Just enter your zip code (...

November 18, 2013

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Does It Pay to Be an Unpaid Intern?

Evidently not, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Unpaid internships led to full-time jobs 36 percent of the time with a median starting salary of $35,721 a year, according to survey results. In contrast, new hires with no internship experience were awarded a slightly higher starting salary, $37,087 a year, but at a slightly lower...

November 18, 2013

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Agencies Issue Final Mental Health Parity Rule

The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Treasury have jointly issued a final rule increasing parity between mental health/substance use disorder benefits and medical/surgical benefits in group and individual health plans. The final rule implements the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, and ensures that health plan features l...

November 18, 2013

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1989: The Last Time a Major Health Care Law Was Repealed

Obamacare supporters are quick to distance the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the federal health care reform measure signed into law in 2010, from the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1989, but some parallels do exist. For one, seniors in 1989 on Medicare balked at the higher premiums associated with catastrophic care (which was mandated and not optional), and for two, the nation wasn...

November 15, 2013

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People Raiding 401(k) Accounts Less These Days

Let's hope people have the inside track on winning the lottery since it seems that many of them cash out their 401(k)s upon leaving their jobs for a new one, buying things like cars, jewelry and vacations. The good news is that the percentage of people so doing has dropped from about 25 percent two decades ago to just 7.5 percent in 2012, according to data compiled by the Employe...

November 14, 2013

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Bowing to Pressure, Obama to Allow Customers to 'Keep Your Policy'

After a couple of weeks of massaging his original vow that "if you like your policy, you can keep your policy," President Obama bowed to the reality that millions of people couldn't keep their insurance policies under the rules of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and unveiled a fix for the problem today -- insurers can now renew customers with policies that do not meet the higher s...

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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