A Federal appeals court in New York has ruled that employers must pay for overtime worked even if the employer did not approve it in advance. The case involved a nursing staffing agency’s policy refusing to pay for overtime not approved by a supervisor.

Although it must pay for the time worked, an employer remains free to have a policy requiring pre-approval of overtime and to discipline an employee for violating a rule that overtime must be approved in advance.

Note that such discipline must be imposed consistently and in proportion to how similar offenses are handled in order to minimize the risk of a retaliation claim under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The percentage of participants in 401(k) programs who have taken a loan from their investments rose from 9 percent in 2005 to 18 percent in 2007. This trend of increased borrowing took place during relatively good economic times of high employment and low mortgage foreclosures.  The outlook is for the borrowing rate to increase during tougher economic times.

The good news about borrowing from a 401(k) plan is that you are essentially borrowing and paying back yourself at an interest rate that is much less than a credit card cash advance. Repayment is made by automatic deductions from earnings. So what’s the problem? Simple, when you reduce the balance of a retirement account you reduce the earning power of these funds.

Employer-sponsored plans are able to encourage more people to save but less than 50 percent of the workforce, ages 25-64, has any kind of defined benefit or defined contribution plan.

Of those who are eligible to participate in a defined contribution plan, 89 percent do not contribute the maximum, 20 percent to 25 percent do not contribute at all and 45 percent do not roll the investment over when they change jobs.

Only 49 percent of employees participate in 401 (k) plans without automatic enrollment compared to 86 percent of those who are enrolled automatically.

Participants also tend not to increase the amount of their default contributions. A full 61 percent do not increase the amount over time.

 

Source: Workforce Management (www.workforce.com)

Most Moms harp at their kids to do their homework, get good grades, and stay in school. Well Mom was definitely right, at least when it comes to the correlation between education and income levels.  According to numbers recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau, 86% of Americans over 25 are high school graduates.  Twenty-nine percent of us hold at least a bachelor’s degree.  Those with that college degree make, on average 55% more than high school graduates, earning $56,788 vs. $31,071.   Those with associates’ degree or some college earned slightly more than high grads ($34,650).   Advanced degree holders fared the best, averaging $82,320 annually.  Individuals who didn’t graduate from high school averaged $20,873.

 

Continued gaps remain between men and women at various education levels.  Male advanced degree holders averaged $101,441 vs. $59,636 for women.  Male high school grads earned $37,356 vs. $23,236 for women.  More information is available at www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/educ-attn.html.

Employers contemplating cutting back on medical benefits might want to mull this: A new survey shows that workers place an extremely high value on health care coverage.

In fact, according to a survey of 1,200 adults sponsored by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence, 84 percent of the respondents said that health insurance has become a “very important” characteristic when choosing a new job.

In fact, medical insurance outranked all other 14 benefits and offerings in the survey. Remarkably, pay ranked 10th on the survey—right below “being creative and intellectually stimulated.”

Another benefit—the corporate pension plan—ranked fourth, cited by 76 percent of respondents as being most important when evaluating a potential job.

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Reprinted from Workforce.com. Filed by Mark Bruno of Financial Week.

Remember Clark Griswold sweating out receiving his Christmas bonus check to cover the downpayment on a new swimming pool in National Lampoon's all time Holiday classic, Christmas Vacation? Nearly every time I watch that movie with other people, the question invariably gets asked, "Have you ever received a Christmas Bonus?" A conversation then follows where individuals offer up their best, or worst Christmas bonus stories. I have noticed a trend over the years that fewer and fewer people can say they currently receive any kind of specific holiday bonus. Most concede they and their spouses are invited to attend a company "holiday event" such as a lunch or dinner party and/or are presented with a nominal gift card or voucher for a Holiday turkey, ham or cheese roll. Holiday social events and nominal gifts are looked forward to, appreciated and acknowledged, but really not considered by the worker to be a "bonus" even though providing them is completely optional and costs the company thousands of dollars to provide.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the San Francisco area had the highest pay levels of any major metropolitan area compared to the national average. Pay in the bay area was 19% higher than the U.S. average. New York City/New Jersey was the next highest at 14%. Boston and Hartford, Connecticut were each 12% above national averages.

According to a 2006 survey conducted by Watson Wyatt Worldwide and WorldatWork, 71% of high performing employees in 262 large U.S. companies said pay would be a key reason for leaving an employer. Are top performers and managers leaving your company at a seemingly above normal rate? The question then becomes, why? Many factors contribute to an organization experiencing high employee turnover. I would argue that one reason is inadequate communication (a.k.a. marketing) to employees regarding the 'total rewards' value of all their benefits and compensation.

Will your 2008 pay increase keep pace with the rising price of gasoline? Probably not. According to a study by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, American employers plan 2008 average pay raises of 3.8% for management and professional staff, 3.7% for office and technical employees, and 3.6% for production, trade, and service workers.  The very top “star” performers could see raises of as much as 5.7%, with average employees finding 3.5% more in their paychecks, and lower performers 1.7%.  The trend toward providing more compensation through incentive pay also continues.

 

According to an annual Census Bureau survey,  2006 median earnings for the U.S. civilian, full time population over 16 was $30,613.  That’s up from $30,289 in 2005.  Professional, scientific, and technical jobs had the highest annual median, $60,327 with company managers at $57,039.  The lowest earners worked in food services and hotels, $22,159.   Men earned a median of $36,129 while women earned $25,081.  Another survey tidbit… the average commute time has remained around 25 minutes.  Survey information can be found at http://factfinder.census.gov .