Vision Payroll

This week’s question comes from Mark, a business owner. We read that the minimum wage in Nevada will increase on July 1, 2010. We know that we must pay weekly and daily overtime if the employee’s hourly wage is below a certain rate. What are the new daily overtime rates for Nevada? Employers must pay 1½ times an employee’s regular wage rate whenever an employee who is paid less than 1½ times the applicable minimum wage rate works more than forty hours in any workweek or more than eight hours in any workday. Michael Tanchek, Labor Commissioner for the Department of Business and Industry, State of Nevada, announced recently that new wage rates, below which daily overtime may be applicable, are effective as of July 1, 2010. The rates are $10.875 per hour for employees to whom qualifying health benefits have been made available by the employer and $12.375 for all other employees. Contact Vision Payroll if you have any further questions on the Nevada daily overtime rate.

According to the US Department of Labor, in the week ending May 15, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 471,000, an increase of 25,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 446,000. The 4-week moving average was 453,500, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 450,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.6% for the week ending May 8, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 3.6%.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending May 8 was 4,625,000, a decrease of 40,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 4,665,000. The 4-week moving average was 4,642,500, a decrease of 9,500 from the preceding week’s revised average of 4,652,000.

The fiscal year-to-date average of seasonally adjusted weekly insured unemployment, which corresponds to the appropriated AWIU trigger, was 5.146 million.

In a recent study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 21% of employees quit their jobs because they believed their boss to be incompetent or difficult. The first step toward making sure that none of your managers becomes crowned as an incompetent boss is to determine some common warning signs of leadership incompetence. Use this quick checklist as your starter guide:

• Unable to Act
• Secret Keeper
• Clueless
• Inside-the-Box
• Lost in Time
• Over-reactive
• Weak Preference
• Credit-Taker

To learn more about the qualities on this checklist and action steps to take after completing it, be sure to read the featured article by the HR pros at MyHRSupportCenter, Making Employees Quit with an Incompetent Boss. If you’re not yet signed up or would like a free trial of MyHRSupportCenter, contact Vision Payroll today.

Michael Tanchek, Labor Commissioner for the Department of Business and Industry, State of Nevada, announced recently that effective July 1, 2010 the minimum wage for employees to whom qualifying health benefits have been made available by the employer will be $7.25 per hour and the minimum wage for all other employees will be $8.25 per hour. Contact Vision Payroll if you have any questions on the Nevada minimum wage increase or visit our Minimum Wage Chart.

Monday, May 31, 2010 will be Memorial Day, a federal holiday. The offices of Vision Payroll will close Friday May 28 at 5 pm EDT and re-open Tuesday June 1. Most banks will also be closed in observance of the holiday.

Payrolls dated May 31 will be paid May 28 unless a previous change in schedule has been submitted. Payrolls submitted after these processing deadlines will be pushed back until the next available processing day. No changes are required for payrolls dated June 3.

The next federal holiday will be Monday, July 5, 2010, celebration of Independence Day. Contact Vision Payroll as soon as possible to make changes to or for questions on your processing schedule.

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, employers must provide a nursing mother a reasonable break time to express breast milk for up to one year after her child’s birth. There is no quantified limit on the number of breaks to be allowed or the duration of such breaks. Employers must provide “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public” for mothers to use. Nothing in this amendment requires this break time to be compensated, although other federal and state laws may require compensation. Employers with fewer than fifty employees are exempt if the “requirements would impose an undue hardship” either through the relative difficulty or expense of complying with the law. As in other sections of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), state laws may provide rules that are more beneficial to the employee and must be followed. Due to the vagueness of the law and possibility of conflicts with other statutes, Vision Payroll strongly recommends that affected employers consult with a competent labor law attorney to ensure compliance.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently released revised 2010 Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, and revised 2010 Form W-3, Transmittal of Wage and Tax Statements. The revised 2010 Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3 indicate that employers should:

Report the amount of wages and tips paid to the qualified employee for which you claimed the payroll tax exemption in Box 12, using code CC. This will include wages and tips paid to the qualified employee from April 1, 2010, through December 31, 2010, for which you claimed the payroll tax exemption, plus wages and tips paid to the qualified employee from March 19, 2010, through March 31, 2010, for which you claimed a credit in the second quarter of 2010. The amount may not exceed $106,800 (2010 maximum social security wage base).

The box on the Form W-3 to report deferred compensation was moved from box 12 to box 12a. In addition, a new box 12b was added to report HIRE exempt wages and tips. Contact Vision Payroll if you have any questions on the 2010 Form W-2 and revised 2010 Form W-3.

This week’s question comes from Kate, a restaurant manager. We know that the Spanish W-4 doesn’t come out at the same time as the English W-4. Is the 2010 Spanish W-4 now available? Answer: The 2010 Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate was released last December. The Spanish equivalent, 2010 Formulario W-4(SP), Certificado de Exención de la Retención del Empleado, was not released until April, but is now available. Contact Vision Payroll if you have any further questions on 2010 Formulario W-4(SP).

According to the US Department of Labor, in the week ending May 8, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 444,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 448,000. The 4-week moving average was 450,500, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 459,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.6% for the week ending May 1, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 3.6%.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending May 1 was 4,627,000, an increase of 12,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 4,615,000. The 4-week moving average was 4,639,500, a decrease of 14,750 from the preceding week’s revised average of 4,654,250.

The fiscal year-to-date average of seasonally adjusted weekly insured unemployment, which corresponds to the appropriated AWIU trigger, was 5.174 million.

A job offer letter should try to contain the right combination of professionalism, optimism, information and, of course, relevant disclaimers. Court cases such as Williams v. Computer Resources, Inc., 851 P.2d 967 (Idaho 1993) show the importance of proper wording in a job offer letter. The date of a job offer letter can be very important as well. When writing a job offer letter, be sure to consider these five key elements:

1. At-Will Employment
2. No Annual Pay Rate
3. Job Offer Details Beyond Pay
4. Generalized Language
5. Professional Review

Get further details on each of these elements by listening to 5 Key Elements in a Job Offer Letter in this month’s HRCast, a recording provided by our team of HR Pros and available exclusively on MyHRSupportCenter. This information will help you the next time you write a job offer letter and guide you in deciding if you should send a job offer letter to all new hires.

Visit MyHRSupportCenter regularly, not only for our HRCasts, but also to get late-breaking compliance alerts, best practices to implement, and HR tools to use every day. If you’re not yet signed up or would like a free trial of MyHRSupportCenter, contact Vision Payroll today.