There have been significant developments in the labor policy arena during the first quarter of 2014.  In January, President Obama unveiled his plan to use an Executive Order to increase the minimum wage Federal Contractors pay their workers.  In March, a Presidential Memorandum was issued to the Department of Labor (DOL) to update and modernize the overtime pay system.  Additionally, the Final Rule of Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which was amended in September 2013 will go into effect on March 24, 2014.  Federal Contractors need to be aware of these changes and the potential impact they have on DOL compliance.

Minimum Wage Increase/Overtime Protection

On February 12, 2014, President Obama issued an Executive Order to raise the minimum wage for Federal Contractors.  As of January 1, 2015, the minimum wage for affected federal contracting and subcontracting personnel will increase from $7.25 per hour to $10.10 per hour. Additionally, the Obama administration announced it will issue a Presidential Memorandum to the DOL instructing its Secretary to update regulations regarding overtime protection for workers under Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA).   Any changes to the regulation will be the first since 2004, when the minimum weekly salary for overtime-exempt workers was increased to the current $455 per week.

Rehabilitation Act

On March 24, 2014 two final rules issued by the Federal Contracts Compliance Programs will go into effect, enhancing contractor’s hiring and affirmative action obligations for individuals with disabilities and covered veterans. The disability rule sets a seven percent goal for contractors’ employment of persons with disabilities across all job categories and introduces numerous compliance and reporting mandates.  If you would like more information on these rules please click here to read a fact sheet outlining the background and highlighting the regulations.

Given these diverse and often disparate developments, the importance of the Professional Service Council (PSC) and the Human Resource Labor Relations Committee (HRLRC) in conveying industry consensus viewpoints to government officials and as a forum for companies and policymakers to meet face-to-face has never been greater.   In addition to serving as a discussion forum with government officials, the HRLRC serves as a focal point for PSC’s policy and educational activities around the Service Contract Act ( SCA ), the Davis Bacon Act (DBA),  and a range of legislation and regulations governing contractor health, hiring and safety practices.

The committee welcomed Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) Policy Director, Debra Carr, for an extensive dialogue on its upcoming hiring requirements, and both PSC and OFCCP pledged to remain engaged as the new rule takes effect. HRLRC will also continue its longstanding engagements with the military and civilian agency labor advisors, along with officials from DOL and its component divisions.

During 2014, under the aegis of the HRLRC, PSC will continue to explore areas in which PSC members can benefit from expert insight and training. They will continue their HRLRC meetings during the year as well as their PSC- SCA two day courses, along with the DOL and DOD panels, which are an active part of their training programs.

Under the leadership of long-time committee chair Al Corvigno of MARAL, LLC and new committee co-chair Anne Rohall of Tech Systems, Inc., the Human Resources and Labor Policy Committee will continue to be the premier venue for PSC members focused on critical HR and labor policy issues.

At Cleary, we know how important a comprehensive benefits package can be to your continued success. Give us a call today at 617-723-0700 and we will work with you to create a plan that meets your fringe-benefit obligations and provides your employees with valuable benefits.

There has just been another PPACA delay to the employer mandate (also known as the “pay or play” mandate) that was slated to begin on January 1, 2015. As you may recall, this was originally effective as of 2014, but postponed last July. The employer mandate is the component of the law that will fine employers for not providing coverage (or not meeting the affordability or minimum value requirements) to their full-time employees (those working 30+ hours per week, on average). Here are the newest delays to be aware of as they affect all employers with at least 50 full-time equivalent employees:

Employers with 50-99 full-time equivalent employees: Delay of the employer mandate until 2016. Therefore, no penalty in 2015 if you don’t offer coverage, however you still must begin reporting details about your insurance coverage to the federal government in 2015.
Be aware, you will need to certify eligibility for this transition relief and meet other requirements, including not reducing your workforce to qualify for transition relief and maintaining previously-offered coverage.

Employers with 100+ full-time equivalent employees: You must offer coverage to at least 70% of your full-time employees (working 30+ hours) in 2015, then to at least 95% in 2016. You will also be required by to report details to the federal government next year.
Other transition relief contained in the proposed regulations were also extended, including the ability to use a short timeframe (at least 6 months) to determine whether an employer is large enough to be subject to the mandate, a delay in the requirement to provide coverage to dependent children to 2016 (as long as the employer is taking steps to arrange for such coverage to begin in 2016), and the permitted use of a short measurement period in 2014 to prepare for 2015.

WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN TO ME?

Employers still need to analyze their exposure and employee population. If you are under 100 employees, there is more relief for you however you still have compliance and reporting requirements (to be released over the coming months) that must be reviewed and prepared in time for 2015. If you have more than 100 employees, you will need to review your workforce to determine which employees need to be offered coverage in 2015. While you only have to ensure that 70% of that population is offered coverage, you will need to identify them and ensure you are in compliance with nondiscrimination rules as they apply. Even though this delay appears to provide some relief, it still requires a full analysis and review of your workforce and compliance with some mandates in 2015.

REFERENCE MATERIALS:

The final regulations are available here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2014-03082.pdf
An IRS Q&A is available here: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Questions-and-Answers-on-Employer-Shared-Responsibility-Provisions-Under-the-Affordable-Care-Act#Liability

We are pleased to spotlight our client The Edge Sports Center which was founded and is managed by Scott Fusco. Scott graduated from Harvard University in 1986 where he was a two time All-American hockey player, the career scoring leader, and the Hobey Baker award winner in that year. Scott was also was a member of the US Olympic Hockey Team in 1984 and 1988.

The Edge was the primary training facility for the 2014 US Olympic Women’s Hockey Team.  In a recent press conference, the women complimented the facility and thanked Scott for skating with them as a practice player!

In addition to hockey, the athletic facility has two outdoor turf athletic fields with one field enclosed for the winter months, a state of the art training center, and a health club facility.

Please click here to read more about The Edge athletic facility and sports complex.

As a business owner, you naturally want to be able to justify every dollar that goes out the door. It’s a competitive market out there for your product or service, and every little advantage helps.

Most successful entrepreneurs, however, are keenly aware that the market for talented employees is also keenly competitive – and there’s a big difference in productivity between experienced, knowledgeable employees who have been with your company for years on one hand, and the new hire off the street, on the other hand.

If you want to keep your best talent, you need to be competitive with the market, of course. But you also want to protect your own best interests at the same time. In today’s market, providing quality protection against the threat of disability makes good sense not just for your employees, but for any business that cares to retain the best, most talented, and most productive workers.

Workers View Benefits as Important

Many surveys have demonstrated that employees place significant value on benefits. For example, according to the Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey, 76 percent of employees rate their overall health insurance coverage as the most important employee benefit, beating even retirement plans in importance.

Furthermore, according to the Society for Human Resource Managements’ 2013 Employee Benefits report, in addition to the schemes offered by an ndis provider or other similar organizations in a country, more and more employers also seem to be offering long and short-term disability plans as part of their employment package. As of last year, 77 percent of employers provided long-term disability protection, while 68 percent provided full-time workers with short-term disability protection.

Outlook

The momentum is clear: Group disability protection is rapidly becoming a standard offering for full-time employees. Meanwhile, as the Affordable Care Act takes hold, health insurance is going to become less and less of a marketplace differentiator for employers. Workers with pre-existing conditions don’t rely on their group plans to be able to get any kind of coverage at all, thanks to the prohibition on underwriting based on pre-existing conditions. And as the employer mandate kicks in, all employers except the very smallest will be forced to provide major medical, or pay big fines.

That leaves other insurance benefits, such as disability, at the top of the list of non-wage differentiators that keep applicants coming, and keep talent from walking away.

Benefits of Group Disability to the Employer

The opening paragraphs, above, make the case for a robust benefits package in general. Why is disability vital? For several reasons:

First, almost every worker who’s been around a few years knows someone who has been affected by an injury or illness that prevents them or a loved one from earning a living. In some cases, you can make the case with people in your firm – former employees who have had their lives disrupted by accidents or illnesses, and who have had to leave their jobs.

It’s therefore easy to “sell” the value of these benefits to your workforce, because workers can very easily see themselves in need of important income protection.

Second, providing a disability plan can help ensure your employees are at their most productive when working on your dime. Workers with access to a good short-term disability plan are less likely to show up to work already hurt, or to try to work through injuries because they need the money. Employees who work sick or hurt run the risk of further injuring themselves and in some cases endanger other employees.

For example: If a worker has no disability insurance, they may feel they have no choice but to show up to work – even if they are taking powerful medications such as codeine or oxycontin, both strong prescription painkillers – for an injury or illness they sustained off the job, and therefore not covered by workers compensation.

If they have an accident at work, however, they endanger you, your other employees, and themselves, and they certainly risk forcing your insurance premiums up.

If you provide a good short-term disability plan, that worker taking narcotic pain medication has the option to stay home and recover, without endangering anyone else.

Additional Supports

Most people think of disability insurance as just a policy that replaces part of a workers income if he or she is injured or sick and can’t work. And that’s true, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Disability insurance companies routinely provide case managers and assistance to get an injured worker back on the job as quickly as possible. By coordinating therapies and advising both the worker and employer on adaptive technologies and reasonable accommodations, a disability insurance provider can be a valuable partner with a business in getting a productive, invaluable employee back on the job as quickly as possible.

In some cases, your case manager can help you design a solution so that an injured employee can work at home – minimizing time lost. This can also be important to protect a worker whose immune system has been compromised by chemotherapy, for example.

Disability vs. Workers Compensation

Remember, disability insurance and workers’ compensation insurance are different things. Workers’ compensation covers injuries incurred on the job, or as a direct result of work. Anything else is not protected by workers’ compensation. Your employees are vulnerable to all manner of illnesses and injuries on their own time – and small businesses frequently suffer when these workers do get hurt.

Best Practices

Buy Quality. The most successful disability insurance programs have been robust. Invest in quality benefits to build and maintain employee morale. Once one employee benefits, the others in the workplace will hear about it. Get the best benefits you can afford.

Educate Workers. Employees can’t value what they don’t know they have. Make a disability presentation part of your company orientation. And go over their benefits in regular training sessions and reviews.

Model Healthy Living. You can’t control what employees do in their off time. But you can point them in the right direction. Get good, healthy options in vending machines. Make healthy lunch options available. Have leadership model good eating habits. Provide access to one or more wellness programs, such as a gym membership.

At Cleary, we know how important a comprehensivee benefits package can be to your continued success. Give us a call today at 617-723-0700 and we will work with you to create a plan that meets your business objectives, takes into account state and federal laws, and capitalizes on incentives and innovative solutions now being offered.