Employer Blog

Question: We had a job candidate who we think would be a good fit for one of our open positions, but she was dressed inappropriately for our office during her interview. Can we say anything to her about her attire during the offer process?

Question: We recently interviewed an older candidate for a position. She’s well qualified, but the team she would be working with is made up of people who are much younger, and we are worried about how she will fit in. Can the criteria to hire for cultural fit outweigh potential age discrimination concerns?

Question: We would like to post photos of our employees on our social media sites. Are we required to obtain our current or former employee’s permission to use photos of them?

Question: Can we maintain a zero-tolerance marijuana use policy in our workplace if medical marijuana use is legal in the state?

There’s not an employer in the country that’s not looking for ways to reduce benefits costs. And more and more employers are frustrated with the skyrocketing cost of providing fully-insured plans.

If you’re like most businesses, you’re demanding new ideas and solutions more than ever. Maybe you’re even considering self-funded plans to get control over price increases. 

Wage an hour claims are nothing to scoff at. According to Seyfarth’s annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report, the value of the top 10 wage and hour settlements was $695 million dollars in 2016. Yes. You read that right. That’s just the top ten cases.

If you think it won’t ever happen to you, you could be right. But are you prepared to bet a few millions bucks on that?

With sexual harassment cases getting loads of media coverage right now, you may think that’s your company’s biggest liability risk. And depending on where you work, you might be right.

Should you throw a bunch of time and energy into preventing harassment from happening? YES.

But there are other risks you need to invest time and energy into as well. Risks that are getting far less attention, but could be just as disruptive to your business: Wage and hour violations.

Question: We’d like to have employees sign a documented policy saying that they will not discuss their pay with current or past employees or with others outside of our company at the risk of having their employment terminated. Is this allowed?

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released Notice 2018-6, extending the deadline for furnishing Forms 1095-B and 1095-C to individuals from January 31, 2018 to March 2, 2018, as well as penalty relief for good-faith reporting errors.  

The due date for filing the forms with the IRS was not extended and remains February 28, 2018 (April 2, 2018 if filed electronically). Despite the repeal of the “individual mandate” beginning in 2019 as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, at this time, the ACA’s information reporting requirements remain in effect (the IRS will continue to use the reporting to administer the employer mandate and premium tax credit program).

Many employers are getting unwelcome mail from the IRS (Letter 226J) assessing employer shared responsibility penalties. Early reports of employers receiving these letters are that errors made on the 1094-C and 1095-C forms may be the trigger.