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The Arkansas Advance Interest Tax took effect April 1, 2011. The purpose of the tax is to pay interest on Title XII advances received from the federal government to pay regular unemployment insurance benefits. The amount of the tax is 0.2% and the tax will remain on until the quarter after all Title XII advances and interest is paid and the Advance Interest fund reaches a balance of five million dollars.

No Separate Line on Contribution and Wage Report

There is not a separate line for the 0.2% tax; rather it has been added to each employer’s rate starting on the 2011 second quarter Contribution and Wage Report. (The total tax rate, including the Advance Interest Tax is shown in Part A, on line 6 of the Employer’s Quarterly Contribution and Wage Report.)

Advance Interest Tax Applies To All of 2011 and Perhaps Later

The tax will be due on taxable wages reported for the second, third and fourth quarters of 2011 and more than likely the tax will remain on, at least, through 2012 and 2013. The tax is due on taxable wages reported each quarter and as such, for the quarter ending June 30th (second quarter) would not apply to an employee who reached the taxable wage base ($12,000) in the quarter ended March 31st (first quarter). If an employee reaches the taxable wage base total at some date during the second quarter, only those wages paid in the quarter up to the total would be subject to the tax. The same principle holds true for the third and fourth quarters.

Contact Vision Payroll for Further Information

Contact Vision Payroll for further information on the changes to Arkansas unemployment taxes.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn recently signed HB 1030 into law. The new law adds an unemployment tax surcharge, increases the taxable wage base, and reduces maximum benefits, among other provisions.

Surcharge Is for First Quarter of 2011

For the first quarter of 2011, employers are now required to pay a surcharge of 0.50% of taxable wages. Up to $90,000,000 of this surcharge is to be earmarked for interest payments for interest required to be paid under Title XII of the Social Security Act or for transfers to the state’s account in the unemployment trust fund.

Taxable Wage Base Will Increase in 2012

The taxable wage base will increase from $12,960 in 2011 to $13,560 in 2012.

Further Surcharge May Apply in 2012

If necessary to further interest payments, a surcharge will also apply to the first quarter of 2012 and the 2013 wage base will remain at $13,560. Otherwise, the 2013 wage base is scheduled to revert to the 2011 level of $12,960.

Maximum Benefits Reduced Starting in 2012

The new law also reduces the maximum total amount of benefits for an eligible individual, for specified benefit years starting in 2012, to 25 (instead of 26) times his or her weekly benefit amount plus dependents’ allowances, or to the total wages for insured work paid to such individual during the individual’s base period, whichever amount is smaller.

Contact Vision Payroll for Further Information

Contact Vision Payroll for further information on the changes to Illinois unemployment taxes.

This week’s question comes from James, an HR director. We need to track training for multiple employees. How can we track employee training? Answer: The Employee Training Log is a simple way to stay organized when it comes to tracking employee (including management) trainings.

Advantages To the Training Log

The training log can provide employers with the following advantages:

• Written documentation of employer’s workplace compliance efforts;
• Monitoring of employee performance development in terms of knowledge, skills, and abilities; and
• Assessment of employee fulfillment of required or recommended attendance due to corrective/disciplinary action expectations.

Download the Employee Training Log Now

The Employee Training Log can be downloaded from the Forms area in the “Essentials” tab section of the MyHRSupportCenter. If you’re not yet signed up or would like a free trial of MyHRSupportCenter, contact Vision Payroll today.

According to the US Department of Labor, in the week ending April 2, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 382,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 392,000. The 4-week moving average was 389,500, a decrease of 5,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 395,250.

Advance Seasonally Adjusted Insured Unemployment Rate Remains Unchanged

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.0% for the week ending March 26, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 3.0%.

Advance Seasonally Adjusted Insured Unemployment Decreases

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 26 was 3,723,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,732,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,745,750, a decrease of 24,000 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,769,750.

A few employers may be familiar with a recent US Supreme Court ruling on March 1, 2011, regarding the case of Staub v. Proctor Hospital, No. 09-400, and how “cat’s paw” liability played a part. Cat’s paw liability involves an employer being held liable for unlawful discrimination, even though the “motivating factor” in the employment decision-making process stems from an unlawful bias of a supervisor with no employment decision-making authority.

Cat’s Paw Derived from the La Fontaine Fable

Cat’s paw relates to a fable about how a monkey convinces a cat to steal chestnuts from a fire, steals the same nuts from the cat, and then leaves the cat with empty but burnt paws. In the context of the workplace environment, the supervisor is the monkey as the employer is the cat.

Apply Seven Preventive Measures to Minimize Cat’s Paw Liability

To find out seven preventive measures companies can take to minimize cat’s paw liability, be sure to read the featured article by the HR pros at MyHRSupportCenter, Is Cat’s Paw Liability Scratching at Your Door?. If you’re not yet signed up or would like a free trial of MyHRSupportCenter, contact Vision Payroll today.

West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin recently signed HR 3134, which among other things, requires employers with more than fifty employees to submit the support withheld via electronic means in a manner prescribed by the Bureau for Child Support enforcement.

Other Child Support Changes Implemented

In addition to the requirement of electronic payments by certain employers, HR 3134 also made the following changes:

• Lowered the accrued interest rate;
• Required employers to provide information as to the issuance of a bonus to the Bureau for Child Support Enforcement;
• Extended the time parties may agree to for payment of arrearages under a payment plan from twenty-four to sixty months; and
• Made various technical corrections.

Contact Vision Payroll Today

Contact Vision Payroll if you have any questions on processing payroll in West Virginia.

In Connecticut, the average number of workers filing for Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits since 2007 has grown from 40,000 to approximately 130,000. In 2009 and 2010, UI benefit payouts greatly exceeded UI tax revenues. In 2011, UI benefit payouts will continue to exceed tax revenues by a substantial margin.

Funding Imbalance Has Led to Insolvency

Because of this funding imbalance, Connecticut’s Unemployment Trust Fund became insolvent on October 13, 2009.

Connecticut Borrowed from the US Department of Labor

In order to continue paying UI benefits to unemployed workers, as required by law, Connecticut began borrowing funds from the US Department of Labor (DOL). To date, Connecticut has borrowed approximately $650 million and the Labor Department projects that total borrowing could approach $1 billion over the next two to three years.

ARRA Waived Interest Through 2010

Generally, federal loans carry interest, but the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) contains a provision waiving interest on UI trust fund loans through 2010. Connecticut will still have substantial loan balances outstanding in 2011 and beyond. Under federal law, employers are required to pay interest to the federal government beginning in 2011.

Interest Collected Through Special Assessments

Under Connecticut law, interest payments from employers are collected through annual Special Assessments, excluding those entities that reimburse the state dollar-for-dollar for the costs of benefits paid to former employees. The first annual Special Assessment date for Connecticut employers is August 1, 2011 with the payment due by August 31, 2011.

Special Assessment Estimated at $40 Million

Connecticut’s total Special Assessment for 2011 is estimated to be approximately $40 million. Based on this estimate, the average cost per employee will be roughly $40. For example, a business that employs ten workers can expect a Special Assessment bill of approximately $400 in August 2011. The 2011 Special Assessment figures are estimates and, therefore, subject to change based on variables such as the actual amounts borrowed and the total number of active employers as of August 2011.

FUTA Tax Rate Expected to increase for 2011

In addition to interest costs, Connecticut and other states with federal loans outstanding for two consecutive years must make additional payments into the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) system to pay down the loan principal. Therefore, the effective FUTA tax rate for calendar year 2011, payable in January 2012, will increase from 0.8% to 1.1%.

Additional FUTA Tax to Be Applied To Loan Principal

The additional FUTA tax collected, approximately $21 per employee, will be applied to the state’s outstanding loan balance – thereby reducing the loan principal.

Contact Vision Payroll Today

Contact Vision Payroll if you have any questions on Connecticut payroll processing.

Governor Gary Herbert recently signed SB 34, Uniform Interstate Family Support Act. Highlights of the bill include:

• Provision of procedures for recognizing foreign support orders;
• Definitions of “convention”, “foreign country”, “foreign support order”, and “foreign tribunal; and
• Incorporation of provisions for filing, modification, and enforcement of support orders issued by foreign countries that have comity with the United States.

SB 34 Effective July 1, 2013

The legislation is effective July 1, 2013.

Contact Vision Payroll Today

Contact Vision Payroll today if you have questions on payroll processing in Utah.

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 216,000 in March, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 8.8%, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported recently. Job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, leisure and hospitality, and mining. Employment in manufacturing continued to trend up.

Household Survey Data

The number of unemployed persons (13.5 million) and the unemployment rate (8.8%) changed little in March. The labor force also was little changed over the month. Since November 2010, the jobless rate has declined by 1.0 percentage point.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (8.6%), adult women (7.7%), teenagers (24.5%), whites (7.9%), blacks (15.5%), and Hispanics (11.3%) showed little change in March. The jobless rate for Asians was 7.1%, not seasonally adjusted.

The number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, at 8.2 million, was little changed in March but has fallen by 1.3 million since November 2010. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was 6.1 million in March; their share of the unemployed increased from 43.9% to 45.5% over the month.

In March, the civilian labor force participation rate held at 64.2%, and the employment population ratio, at 58.5%, changed little.

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed in March, at 8.4 million. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

In March, 2.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, up slightly from a year earlier. (These data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

Among the marginally attached, there were 921,000 discouraged workers in March, little changed from a year earlier. (These data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.5 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in March had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

This week’s question comes from Frank, a company controller. I heard that the EEOC published its final regulations concerning the ADAAA. What is the impact of the final ADAAA regulations? Answer: The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued final regulations on the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA), which were published in the Federal Register on March 25, 2011.

ADAAA Expanded Definition of Disability

Congress overturned several Supreme Court decisions that Congress believed had interpreted the definition of “disability” too narrowly, resulting in a denial of protection for many individuals with impairments such as cancer, diabetes, and epilepsy. The ADAAA states that the definition of disability should be interpreted in favor of broad coverage of individuals.

EEOC Regulations Implement the ADAAA by Changing Interpretations of Terms

The regulations keep the ADA’s definition of the term “disability” as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; a record (or history) of such an impairment; or being regarded as having a disability. But the regulations implement the significant changes that Congress made regarding how those terms should be interpreted.

EEOC Regulations Adopt “Rules of Construction”

The regulations implement Congress’s intent to set forth predictable, consistent, and workable standards by adopting “rules of construction” to use when determining if an individual is substantially limited in performing a major life activity. These rules of construction are derived directly from the statute and legislative history and include the following:

• The term “substantially limits” requires a lower degree of functional limitation than the standard previously applied by the courts. An impairment does not need to prevent or severely or significantly restrict a major life activity to be considered “substantially limiting.” Nonetheless, not every impairment will constitute a disability.
• The term “substantially limits” is to be construed broadly in favor of expansive coverage, to the maximum extent permitted by the terms of the ADA.
• The determination of whether an impairment substantially limits a major life activity requires an individualized assessment, as was true prior to the ADAAA.
• With one exception (“ordinary eyeglasses or contact lenses”), the determination of whether an impairment substantially limits a major life activity shall be made without regard to the ameliorative effects of mitigating measures, such as medication or hearing aids.
• An impairment that is episodic or in remission is a disability if it would substantially limit a major life activity when active.
• In keeping with Congress’s direction that the primary focus of the ADA is on whether discrimination occurred, the determination of disability should not require extensive analysis.

EEOC Regulations Change Focus To How a Person Has Been Treated

As required by the ADAAA, the regulations also make it easier for individuals to establish coverage under the “regarded as” part of the definition of “disability.” Because of court interpretations, it had become difficult for individuals to establish coverage under the “regarded as” prong. Under the ADAAA, the focus for establishing coverage is on how a person has been treated because of a physical or mental impairment (that is not transitory and minor), rather than on what an employer may have believed about the nature of the person’s impairment.

EEOC Regulations Provide New Clarification

The regulations clarify, however, that an individual must be covered under the first prong (“actual disability”) or second prong (“record of disability”) in order to qualify for a reasonable accommodation . The regulations clarify that it is generally not necessary to proceed under the first or second prong if an individual is not challenging an employer’s failure to provide a reasonable accommodation.

EEOC Regulations Differ from the NPRM

The final regulations differ from the NPRM in a number of ways. The final regulations modify or remove language that groups representing employer or disability interests had found confusing or had interpreted in a manner not intended by the EEOC. For example:

• Instead of providing a list of impairments that would “consistently,” “sometimes,” or “usually not” be disabilities (as had been done in the NPRM), the final regulations provide the nine rules of construction to guide the analysis and explain that by applying those principles, there will be some impairments that virtually always constitute a disability. The regulations also provide examples of impairments that should easily be concluded to be disabilities, including epilepsy, diabetes, cancer, HIV infection, and bipolar disorder.
• Language in the NPRM describing how to demonstrate that an individual is substantially limited in “working” has been deleted from the final regulations and moved to the appendix (consistent with how other major life activities are addressed). The final regulations also retain the existing familiar language of “class or broad range of jobs” rather than introducing a new term, and they provide examples of individuals who could be considered substantially limited in working.
• The final regulations retain the concepts of “condition, manner, or duration” that the NPRM had proposed to delete and explain that while consideration of these factors may be unnecessary to determine whether an impairment substantially limits a major life activity, they may be relevant in certain cases.

Question and Answer Documents Are Now Available

The EEOC has released two Question-and-Answer documents about the regulations to aid the public and employers – including small business – in understanding the law and new regulations. The ADAAA regulations and accompanying Question and Answer documents are available on VisionPayroll.com by clicking Questions and Answers on the Final Rule Implementing the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 and Questions and Answers for Small Businesses: The Final Rule Implementing the ADA Amendments Act of 2008.