Vision Payroll

Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis recently released the US Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiscal year (FY) 2010 budget request. The budget requests $104.5 billion including $13.3 billion in discretionary funding and 17,477 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs). This represents an increase of $400 million in non-Recovery Act discretionary spending and 997 non-recovery Act FTEs.

Solis said that the DOL will measure its progress in FY 2010 through its progress toward meeting four strategic goals:

Goal 1 — A Prepared Workforce: Develop a prepared workforce by providing effective training and support services to new and incumbent workers and supplying high quality information on the economy and labor market.

Goal 2 — A Competitive Workforce: Meet the competitive labor demands of the worldwide economy by enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of the workforce development and regulatory systems that assist workers and employers in meeting the challenges of global competition.

Goal 3 — Safe and Secure Workplaces: Promote workplaces that are safe, healthful and fair; guarantee workers receive the wages due them; foster equal opportunity in employment; and protect veterans’ employment and re-employment rights.

Goal 4 — Strengthened Economic Protections: Protect and strengthen worker economic security through effective and efficient provision of unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation; ensuring union transparency; and securing pension and health benefits.

To meet these goals, the DOL plans to hire 670 new enforcement staff including 200 new Front-line Investigators for the Wage and Hour Division, 130 new Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) officers, 75 new staff at the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) and 213 new staff at the Office of Federal Contract Compliance (OFCCP).

The DOL also plans to use $8.7 billion for employment and training programs, including $50 million for green jobs. From the Recovery Act funding, the DOL intends $500 million for competitive grants for green worker training. Another $135 million will go to the Career Pathways Innovation Fund, formerly known as Community-Based Job Training Grants. The new program will focus on developing career pathways in community colleges for high-growth careers in partnership with workforce investment boards, faith-based groups and other community groups. Transitional jobs program testing will receive $50 million to see if such programs can help individuals with severe employment barriers gain the skills and experience they need to find unsubsidized jobs. YouthBuild is scheduled to receive $114 million for low-income and at-risk youth to receive the opportunity to obtain a high school diploma or GED while building affordable housing and learning the skills necessary for construction jobs. An additional 7,200 homeless veterans, especially women, would be the beneficiaries of $255 million as would green jobs training for veterans and employment workshops for veterans to assist in the transition to civilian life.

Vision Payroll has provided this brief summary of the budget proposal. Interested parties may find more detailed information at the DOL website.

According to the US Department of Labor, in the week ending May 2, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 601,000, a decrease of 34,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 635,000. The 4-week moving average was 623,500, a decrease of 14,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 638,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.8% for the week ending April 25, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 4.7%.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 25 was 6,351,000, an increase of 56,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 6,295,000. The 4-week moving average was 6,207,250, an increase of 125,250 from the preceding week’s revised average of 6,082,000.

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 4.953 million.

The US Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued Administrator signed Opinion Letter FLSA2009-4. Although Opinion Letters only apply to the exact set of facts and circumstances presented in each case, they are a valuable aid in understanding current interpretations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

In this Opinion Letter, the DOL concluded that a convention and visitors services sales manager whose “primary duty is marketing and promotional work to enhance the city as a destination for conventions and visitors” qualified for the administrative exemption to the FLSA. In addition to a salary of at least $455 per week, to qualify for the administrative exemption an employee must perform office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers and a primary component of which involves the exercise of independent judgment and discretion about matters of significance.

The employee in question was primarily involved in marketing, which is considered office or non-manual work. This is true even though the employee performed some support and clerical duties, since this non-exempt work was not the employee’s primary duty. Furthermore, the employee exercised independent judgment and discretion since the employee performed important duties on matters of significant economic import to the city with minimal supervision.

The DOL did not address whether the employee qualified under the professional exemption since the matter was moot.

State laws may provide rules that are more beneficial to the employee and must be followed. Contact Vision Payroll if you have questions about this Opinion Letter.

The US Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued Administrator signed Opinion Letter FLSA2009-3. Although Opinion Letters only apply to the exact set of facts and circumstances presented in each case, they are a valuable aid in understanding current interpretations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

In this Opinion Letter, an employer requested an opinion as to whether its method of calculating retroactive overtime pay was compliant with the FLSA. After a reorganization at the employer, certain formerly exempt employees no longer performed the duties that qualified them as exempt. These employees had been paid a salary even after they had become non-exempt employees. This salary might have been reported on their bi-weekly pay stubs as 100 hours worked at $18.25 per hour for a salary of $1,825.00 regardless of the number of actual hours worked. This was due to an understanding that these employees would generally work at least fifty hours each work week and the limitations of the employer’s payroll department and software.

The employer’s method for calculating overtime for the newly non-exempt employees was as follows:

1. Determine the actual hours worked by an employee for a given week.
2. Calculate the equivalent of the employee’s weekly salary by dividing the bi-weekly salary by two.
3. Divide that weekly salary by the number of hours worked in that week.
4. Divide that resulting hourly rate equivalent by two in order to determine the hourly overtime premium.
5. Multiply that overtime premium rate by the overtime hours worked in that week.

In all cases, the resulting hourly rate calculated exceeded the applicable minimum wage.

The Opinion Letter stated that the fact the payroll software displayed an hourly rate on the check did not mean that the employer was required to pay overtime based on that rate; therefore, the employer’s method of calculating overtime was in compliance with the FLSA.

State laws may provide rules that are more beneficial to the employee and must be followed. Contact Vision Payroll if you have questions about this Opinion Letter.

According to the US Department of Labor, in the week ending April 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 631,000, a decrease of 14,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 645,000. The 4-week moving average was 637,250, a decrease of 10,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 648,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.7 percent for the week ending April 18, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 4.6 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 18 was 6,271,000, an increase of 133,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 6,138,000. The 4-week moving average was 6,076,000, an increase of 131,500 from the preceding week’s revised average of 5,944,500.

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 4.894 million.

According to the US Department of Labor, in the week ending April 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 640,000, an increase of 27,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 613,000. The 4-week moving average was 646,750, a decrease of 4,250 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 651,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.6% for the week ending April 11, an increase of 0.1 percentage points from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 4.5%.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 11 was 6,137,000, an increase of 93,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 6,044,000. The 4-week moving average was 5,944,000, an increase of 142,500 from the preceding week’s revised average of 5,801,500.

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 4.837 million.

According to the US Department of Labor, in the week ending April 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 610,000, a decrease of 53,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 663,000. The 4-week moving average was 651,000, a decrease of 8,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 659,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.5% for the week ending April 4, an increase of 0.1 percentage points from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 4.4%.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 4 was 6,022,000, an increase of 172,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 5,850,000. The 4-week moving average was 5,796,000, an increase of 146,000 from the preceding week’s revised average of 5,650,000.

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 4.781 million.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) made changes to the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) continuation health coverage. In certain situations, employers must pay 65% of the continuation premium and take a credit on Form 941, Employer’s QUARTERLY Federal Tax Return. Plans subject to the Federal COBRA provisions must send the Notice in Connection with Extended Election Periods to any assistance eligible individual (AEI) (or any individual who would be an AEI if a COBRA continuation election were in effect) who:

1. Had a qualifying event at any time from September 1, 2008 through February 16, 2009; and
2. Either did not elect COBRA continuation coverage, or who elected it but subsequently discontinued COBRA.

This notice includes information on ARRA’s additional election opportunity, as well as premium reduction information. This notice must be provided by April 18, 2009.

Contact Vision Payroll if you have any questions on the Notice in Connection with Extended Election Periods.

According to the US Department of Labor, in the week ending April 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 654,000, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 674,000. The 4-week moving average was 657,250, a decrease of 750 from the previous week’s revised average of 658,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.4% for the week ending March 28, an increase of 0.1 percentage points from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 4.3%.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 28 was 5,840,000, an increase of 95,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 5,745,000. The 4-week moving average was 5,647,500, an increase of 146,750 from the preceding week’s revised average of 5,500,750.

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 4.753 million.

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline sharply in March (-663,000), and the unemployment rate rose from 8.1% to 8.5%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US Department of Labor reported recently. Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.1 million jobs have been lost, with almost two-thirds (3.3 million) of the decrease occurring in the last 5 months. In March, job losses were large and widespread across the major industry sectors.

In March, the number of unemployed persons increased by 694,000 to 13.2 million, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.5%. Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has grown by about 5.3 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 3.4 percentage points. Half of the increase in both the number of unemployed and the unemployment rate occurred in the last 4 months.

The unemployment rates continued to trend upward in March for adult men (8.8%), adult women (7.0%), whites (7.9%), and Hispanics (11.4%). The jobless rates for blacks (13.3%) and teenagers (21.7%) were little changed over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 6.4% percent in March, not seasonally adjusted, up from 3.6% a year earlier.

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs increased by 547,000 to 8.2 million in March. This group has nearly doubled in size over the past 12 months.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose to 3.2 million over the month and has increased by about 1.9 million since the start of the recession in December 2007.